Posted on 01/19/2010 11:25:59 AM PST by Biggirl
These are “official” absentee ballots per the video. She had at least two of them and the video implied she had more.
Absentee ballots can be delivered today - up through the polling close time - by a “family” member of the voter and delivered to a local election official.
If there is an accepted system for logging and control of absentee ballots, why does Melendez have MULTIPLE ballots? (not copies)
The deadline for submitted an absentee ballot HAS NOT PASSED. Please do read my post linked above...
“You may return your completed absentee ballot by mail or you or a family member may hand-deliver it to the local election official. Your completed ballot cannot be delivered directly to your polling place on Election Day.
If mailing your ballot, please make sure to include the proper postage.
To be counted, a completed ballot must be received by the time the polls close on Election Day to be counted.”
This means a “family” member can deliver the ballot by hand to an election official today. (How I read it.)
Could you provide the link to Costa’s piece? I’m definitely willing to read a different opinion, but as I read the information at the state’s own Web site, it LOOKS to me like absentee ballots can be hand-delivered today.
No Exit Polls [Robert Costa]
John Fund of WSJ.com explains:
The Massachusetts Senate race was a complete snoozer until January 5, when pollster Scott Rasmussen released a survey showing Republican Scott Brown trailing Democrat Martha Coakley by only nine points. That surprised many, but still wasn't a true wake-up call that the race would be a barnburner. As late as January 10, the Boston Globe carried a headline trumpeting a poll showing Ms. Coakley with a 15-point lead. Mr. Brown's surge was so sudden that many of the usual accoutrements of closely-contested elections are missing in the Bay State.
One is exit polls. There will be none tonight from Massachusetts, disappointing journalists and political scientists alike. As Mike Allen of Politico.com reports, the consortium of news outlets that normally organizes such surveys didn't bother when the race was expected to be a blowout and now "wasn't confident a reliable system could be built so fast."
Another casualty of the expectation that the race would be a cakewalk for the Democrat will be an absence of absentee ballot fraud, the preferred method of putting an illegal thumb on the scale in a close race. Applications for absentee ballots had to be submitted by last Friday, providing little opportunity for those with ill intent to organize such an effort once they realized the race had tightened up . . . Both parties have concerns about vote fraud or intimidation in today's election. Hundreds of lawyers and observers have been deployed at key polling places. But it's likely to be a relatively quiet election from a litigation angle unless the final margin is razor-thin. The Brown surge came so suddenly there was no time to plan anything devious beyond the usual negative commercials — which in this race ran everywhere, including, for the first time in anyone's memory, The Weather Channel.
I would.
But I live in Tn not MA
Costa is correct. APPLICATIONS for absentee ballots had to be in by end of business on Friday (the business day before the election).
I read that to be different then ballot submissions, which I still think were able to be submitted by 8 p.m. ET today to an election officer.
Either way ... it’s done. Coakley just conceded.
Actually, Costa got his info from John Fund at WSJ.
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