Posted on 02/19/2014 1:38:30 PM PST by onyx
Not to over simplify any number of many hurdles, what is wrong with this picture, as TEXAS braces for an onslaught of chicanery to turn the state into an extention of Juarez and totally Blue in the process?
You have given thought to this, I’m sure.
An aging population in the cities can not stand for hours, but paid lo fo’s can. Where is the answer to just that dilemma?
Are the ever increasing fraud & theft risks an issue to be reckoned with at all?
It is disturbing to think this is as good as it gets because better is complicated.
“What can POSSIBLY be so cumbersome??”
It is “cumbersome” with laws that must be followed exactly in order to prevent voter fraud. If all people were honest, the process could be simplified but that isn’t going to happen so every detail is written in law in order to have fair elections.
The cost I can’t address but I’ll give you an expample. Jefferson County Texas
has 11 early voting locations. They are open 11 days for early voting this election. In 2010 there were 145,201 registered voters. On the Normal election day there are 116 voting precincts.
Now it is possible that a few may be consodidated to the same voting location.
The Texas Legislature enacted early voting in 1987. 1988 was the first year of
in person absentee voting. In 1993 legislation mandated early voting statewide
in all 254 counties. Early voting has changed over time until it is just as if
you were voting on a normal election day, except as a rule the lines aren’t nearly as long.
To vote in person you must have a valid photo ID, be a registered voter, appear
and sign the register. From its inception the voters using early voting has grown
to were approximately 40% of the voters are early voters. I think you can say it’s
here to say for the foreseeable future.
JMO
I wrote about this yesterday. The Texas Republican Party has spent money to open offices in areas with mostly Spanish people living there. If you open an office, they will come and I've seen it happen. So, there is outreach to this group of people. Also, a number of our county Republican parties have started groups of conservative Spanish teen agers lead by a Spanish adult Republican worker. We are not sitting on our thumbs as national Democrats would have you believe.
“An aging population in the cities can not stand for hours, but paid lo fo’s can. Where is the answer to just that dilemma?”
We have early voting without long lines and early voting is here to stay. I have described how early voting works up thread from this post.
“Are the ever increasing fraud & theft risks an issue to be reckoned with at all?”
At our last November general election, 2012, certain of us who knew election law were linked up on election day (I only left my chair at home to get food from kitchen or go to bathroom that whole day) and any Republican election judges, Republican alternate judges, or Republican election clerks, could call a certain number and report a problem or they could send their question by email. We would tell the person what to do if his/her report was a violation, so it could be stopped right then.
In Texas, the party of the election judge is determined by who that precinct voted in the majority for, Texas governor. If that precinct voted in the majority for the Republican Rick Perry, the judge of that precinct had to be a Republican. If that precinct voted in the majority for the Democrat candidate for governor, the judge would be a Democrat. Since Rick Perry won as governor, most precincts in Texas voted in the majority for him. What did that mean? It meant most of the election judges in that November election, were Republicans. What did that mean? It means Republican election judges don't cheat, so our elections in most precincts are run fairly. Now, if the election judge is a Republican, the alternate judge is a Democrat so both parties are at every precinct.
So, we were riding herd on election day to make sure our Texas election was fair at every precinct.
“It is disturbing to think this is as good as it gets because better is complicated.”
It is not complicated if one looks at its parts rather than jumbled together. There are laws as to how ballots are secured in early voting, in the mail in ballots, and voting machines, and on election day. You would agree we have to have laws to protect the ballots whether paper or voting machines.
There are laws to protect the voting machines so they are kept sealed once they are approved, by the election administrator, and chair of both parties, that the machine is properly working. There are laws to protect the machines on voting day so they are secure at all times. You would agree we have to protect the machines.
There are laws about how a polling place is run in order to protect the integrity of that election. The election judge must set up the perimeter outside so no campaigning is done past the perimeter signs. The election judge is responsible for keeping the machines protected, remove any machine that has “screwed up”. When the judge gets the machines that morning, both the judge and alternate judge have to check each machine to make sure they are set to zero indicating no one has messed with that machine since it was checked at the courthouse. You would agree laws have to protect voting machines.
If they are using paper ballots, the number of ballots has to be checked by the election judge to make sure it is the same number the election administrator sent as noted on a document. The sequence of the ballots has to be correct. There are laws as to where ballots are during the day and where completed ballots are kept locked up. You would agree paper ballots have to be protected for integrity of the election.
At the end of election day, the election judge and alternate judge have to secure the paper ballots or machines and the ballots and machine disks have to be documented and taken to the courthouse, followed by a sheriff or sheriff deputy so those ballots get directly to the courthouse.
Then, all ballots and machine results are delivered to central counting where the results are tabulated. They must follow Bill's Law (my husband's law), in choosing people to be in central counting and what their jobs are. You would agree laws have to be followed to fairly count ballots.
That is a brief summary, leaving out a lot (such as duties of the election administrator and laws pertaining to the Early Voting Ballot Board that processes mail ballots), of the process for voting and why we need laws to have fair elections.
If you will guarantee all voters are honest, we could shorten the process. :o)
Another election judge duty:
Voter validation:
Every voter coming in on a Republican PRIMARY day (in primaries, Democrats and Republicans have separate elections), must be identified by certain documents, as the person the voter says he/she is, and it must be determined by the voter list that this person is voting in the right precinct. If he/she should vote in a different precinct, he/she is sent to that precinct. Then, the voter signs the voter list and his/her voter card is stamped as voting in the Republican Primary and that makes that person a Republican until the next primary two years later.
Dang!
How many DETAILS are there?
“How many DETAILS are there?”
Remember my post 104 and 105 when people say an election is crooked. If the law is followed, it is very difficult to cheat.
In the many seminars I gave to Republicans across the state, no one ever asked me how to cheat. What I heard was, how do we keep Democrats from cheating? Some or most, Democrat election judges cheat from stupidity - no one ever taught them the law so they don’t know how to run a precinct election.
When I taught our election judges in my county, we always had a Democrat judge show up. She was a former mayor of a town and was now a Democrat election judge and she said she wanted to know how to do it right. We loved her.
If my memory is correct, all those events occurred when the Democrats ruled the state under "Ma" Richards. Hardly surprising that it went down that way. Democrats know that the more days you keep the polls open, the more voting fraud and cheating is abetted. (That doesn't mean that Texas doesn't have a relatively honest election system overall, compared to many states, because other protections against fraud and cheating are apparently followed.
Actually it started under Bill Clements who took office Jan. 1987. Ann Richards took office Jan. 1991.
The Texas Senate became GOP controlled in 1996 and the Texas House in 2002.
“The Texas Legislature enacted early voting in 1987.
If my memory is correct, all those events occurred when the Democrats ruled the state under “Ma” Richards.”
Republican Bill Clements was governor of Texas in 1987 until 1991. Early voting started under Clements.
I am grateful for the masterful rendering of TEXAS election rules and procedures. I have saved it. I will chew on this.
Marcella, you are magnificent. We all appreciate you very much. Thank you, Rita
“Marcella, you are magnificent. We all appreciate you very much. Thank you, Rita”
I thank you for saying that. When I got into politics, it became clear to me that if you play the game, you have to know the rules. He who knows the rules wins. The game rules in politics, is the election law. The person who knows the rules, wins, so I set about for us to win by studying the election code until I knew it, then I taught it to everyone who needed to know it. Our election judges in my county were the best in Texas.
Then, I branched out and started instructing in other Texas counties and election judges and clerks are still using the material I gave them and when a law changes, they record it on those papers.
I had a blast teaching people for four hours. I had them laughing most of the time and that helped them remember what I taught. We met for two hours, then I let them eat, then we did it another two hours. I had someone tell me I couldn’t teach for four hours because the people would get tired and not listen. We had so much fun, they would have gone for more hours. Time flies when you’re having fun.
I was teaching a county out in west Texas and there was a reporter there. I wouldn’t start until that reporter left. When I teach, I am NOT politically correct and I didn’t want anything I said reported in a newspaper.
I did speak at a Republican gathering, not teaching, and there was a reporter there and I didn’t know it and when that reporter left, she reported to her boss that I offended her by what I said. Well, if you send a Democrat reporter to a Republican function, and I speak, that is what you get. I wouldn’t have changed a word of what I said. I always tell the truth and sometimes that galls a Democrat and I don’t care.
I fit on this forum because Jim Robinson pretty much thinks like I do and he hasn’t kicked me off - yet. I don’t think Democrats like him and I know they don’t like me in Texas. Tough cookie.
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