Vote-by-mail goes to council

Hawaii Tribune-Herald ^ | 01/03/08 | Peter Sur

[GrandmaPatriot]

Proposal would drop voting booths for mailed ballots on island

If Councilwoman Brenda Ford had her say, Hawaii County would be the first in the state to abolish voting booths in favor of a vote-by-mail program.

The County Council is set to discuss a nonbinding resolution Wednesday that would encourage the state Legislature to establish mail voting on a trial basis in the 2010, 2012 and 2014 elections for Hawaii County.

If enacted, this county would follow Oregon and most of Colorado in mail voting.

[GrandmaPatriot]

This is the wonderful county I live in. I can't imagine it getting any bluer but I think they are trying.

[SandRat]

Another state to be stolen by illegal, uninformed, and bought voters.

[cripplecreek]

Hawaii has already voted to give their electoral votes to the winner of other states anyway. In other words, even if your state voted 100% republican, your electors would be bound by law to vote democrat if other “member states” do.

http://www.nationalpopularvote.com/

[Steely Tom]

Next step: ending the secret ballot.

[ksm1]

Let me play Devil’s advocate here. Vote by mail makes sure that voters have a valid address (meaning that they actually exist) and cuts out much of the nonsense of poll workers not checking ID’s, or duplicate ballots.

[SteamShovel]

Next step: ending the secret ballot.

Who will guarantee that ballots will not be stolen and/or replaced from the mail?

Absentee balloting should be returned to it's original intent, that is if you can demonstrate you cannot make it to the poles on election day. Anything beyond that is an invitation to vote fraud.

[Tony in Hawaii]

I remember in the 1990s when I lived on the Big Island there was a bit of a conservative movement there, not big but it was there.

One Hilo radio station, KHLO if memory serves, actually carried Rush live at 6AM during that time.

I moved away in 2001, has it gotten worse?

[supercat]

Next step: ending the secret ballot.

If someone were to discrete informs you that something unpleasant is going to happen to you unless you hand them a "properly" filled out ballot and let them inspect it before they mail it in, just how 'secret' would your ballot be?

I would like to see Congress pass some model legislation for absentee ballots providing that states should provide a convenient means by which state officials could certify that a person went into a booth with a blank ballot and unsealed envelope and came out with a sealed envelope. States that did not want to participate in such a program would not be required to do so, but those that did so would reap reciprocal benefits from other states that did.