It's pathetic when you have to cheat to win.

The McCain / Palin campaign sent a bunch of absentee ballots to Obama supporters. How nice of them. Except they weren't actually being nice at all. They were being sneaky and malicious.

Problem 1:

The ballots contain an unnecessary checkbox which the voter must check to indicate that he/she is qualified to vote. Legally, there is suppose to be a statement indicating that the voter is qualified to vote (i.e. "By submitting this ballot I certify that I am qualified to vote."), not a question (i.e. "Are you qualified to vote?"). If that box isn't checked, their ballot is invalid, and their vote isn't counted.

To fix the problem, everyone who has already voted must vote again. This means that they must be notified, issued a corrected ballot, fill it out, mail it off, and hope that it gets to the correct destination. It sounds simple, but every extra step is an extra opportunity for a screw up, and repeating the task twice adds lots of extra steps. And some voters may have filled out their absentee ballot because they were going to be absent (e.g. out of the country, busy fighting a war, traveling on business trips, going out of state on vacation), so they won't even be home to get the replacement ballot. All of this means that it's probable that some of those voters won't get their vote counted or won't get to re-vote at all.

Problem 2:

There are reports that return envelopes for the absentee ballots had the wrong mailing address on them.

This means the citizen votes on the absentee ballot, seals it in the envelope, puts the envelope into the mailbox, and falsely believe that he/she has done her patriotic duty as a citizen. Meanwhile, their vote is sent on a journey to a place where their vote isn't supposed to go, a place where their vote never gets counted.

Problem 3:

Why is it legal for a candidate to issue absentee ballots anyhow? Isn't this something that a neutral third party, like... oh... maybe the State Board of Elections should handle? If a candidate really does want to increase voter turn out, he/she can just donate money to the State Board of Election to aid in the voting efforts, but they don't do that. They want to send out their own ballots. Why? It gives them to opportunity to screw things up for their own benefit. Plus, it gives them yet another opportunity to campaign at the very last moment. Just check out the McCain ballot at http://forums.therandirhodesshow.com/index.php?showtopic=9064.

McCain for President? Palin for VP? Country First?

Country first is right. Lie to the country first. Then cheat your way to the top. After that, you can manipulate the system for your own selfish, greedy benefit. It's the Republican way.

For more about these stories, check out...

http://zanesvilletimesrecorder.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080912/UPDATES01/80912006/1002/NEWS01

http://current.com/items/89293206_misleading_absentee_ballots_being_sent_to_citizens_by_john_mccain

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2008/09/11/McCain_forms_confuse_Ohio_absentees/UPI-87691221180496/

http://current.com/items/89293206_misleading_absentee_ballots_being_sent_to_citizens_by_john_mccain

http://news.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080911/NEWS0108/309110032

Labels: Activism, Things that Annoy Me