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Thursday, April 24, 2014
Maryland wants California's spot ....
Early
voting
7 comments:
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Tom Mann said...
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As a Montgomery County, Maryland Chief Election Judge, I am charged, along with a chief of the opposing party, with verifying the zero counts as well as cumulative counts on all of the voting machines in my precinct prior to opening the polls. Any machine showing any activity is required to be locked and reported to the Board of Elections. I will be doing the same for some of the early voting sessions.
At the end of Election Day, the total number of votes cast on the machines is reconciled to the number of voters who are checked in on the voter roll machines. That’s also a legal responsibility.
While it is not required, I verify the election results for my precinct with the official precinct totals reported as part of the official election results.
In my home precinct, while I don’t know all of my neighbors I do have a good idea what they look like so that I’m reasonably able to determine whether those arriving to cast ballots are in fact who they represent themselves to be. I am also qualified to challenge any who I might suspect are not.
At early voting, I have no idea who the people are who arrive to vote or whether they are who they represent themselves to be. Anyone registered Maryland voter is permitted to vote at any early voting polling place. They can arrive by the busload but as long as they have the identity of a voter (name, address, birthdate), and then I’m required to issue them a ballot. The opportunity for fraud here is apparent. Data can be collected from retirement facilities or even graveyards and those voters franchise can be stolen.
In my opinion, the greatest opportunity for fraud exists after the polls have been closed and the election judge team is in cahoots. At that point it is possible to identify which voters in the precinct have not voted and have whomever is still in the polling place fraudulently cast those ballots. I’m certain that is how the gubernatorial election was stolen from Ellen Sauerbrey. The election results from the Baltimore city precincts were not delivered until many hours after they should have been reported. Further, the percentage of ballots cast in those precincts greatly exceeded all historical percentages.
The key to preventing fraud with the machines is to monitor the timely closing of the polls and timely delivery of the election results, either by modem or physically delivering them. That can be accomplished by poll observers who can be qualified by the election board.
Additionally, the voter rolls themselves need to be periodically verify their integrity. I know of no process for that and at this point the surest way to do that would be to wipe them clean and require that everyone reregister.
All of this requires the dedicated vigilance of the electorate and I fear that our populace has become complacent. Hopefully by exposing the rampant voter fraud existing today, good citizens will wake up and protect their franchise.
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4/24/14, 1:09 PM
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Anonymous said...
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You bastard! You're just trying to disenfranchise millions of dead and non-existent Democrat voters!
GrinfilledCelt -
4/24/14, 1:50 PM
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Anonymous said...
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Tom M- thanks for the explanation and your civic service.
I watched the returns in 2012 until the wee hours, and I noticed that 'red' precincts had their returns in at 85-100% within an hour or two of the poll closing times, but in the swing states, areas like Cleveland OH Port St Lucie and Palm Beach Fl,
Fairfax and King William VA, and others I've forgotten, did not have their returns in until 4-7 hours after poll closing. I suppose that is how long it takes to review the rolls and get those late 'absentee' votes in.
The danger point here in Virginia seems to be between when the ballots leave the precinct and when they arrive at the registrar's for tally. Those ballots are placed in a private individual's car and driven by an election judge - alone - to the registrar's office. IMHO, the nuke two-man rule should apply to all voting machines and physical ballots until the returns are certified and there is no recount issue looming.
Election fraud should be a capital crime.
Lt. Col. Gen. Tailgunner dick -
4/24/14, 4:11 PM
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Tom Mann said...
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Lt. Col. Gen. Tailgunner dick,
Thanks for the kind words. Here in very liberal Montgomery County, the vote totals are recorded on data storage cards. The totals in most precincts are transmitted by modem to the Board of Elections. All functions are supposed to be performed with judges from each party side by side including delivery of the data storage cards as well as other critical materials.
The problem with the pairing of the judges is that there is a shortage of judges in general and Republican judges in particular.
You are correct in your assessment of the critical period. It’s after the polls are closed to the public and before the results are transmitted. The board estimates this to take about 2 hours. I’ve worked in precincts where it takes the full 2 hours. In mine, we have a crack team and we get it done in 75 to 90 minutes. Anything longer than a couple of hours is likely time spent identifying voters who didn’t vote, certifying on the rolls that they did, and then have a flunky cast the prescribed ballots.
I concur with your capital crime penalty.
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4/24/14, 4:55 PM
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drew458 said...
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Tom Mann -
And when is the last time that your state proofed the voter rolls? I believe it was South Carolina in the news the other week, when they tried to do theirs, and found tens of thousands of multiply listed voters, along with plenty of dead people who were still showing up at the polls.
Yes, the only way to do it right is to make every citizen reregister, with extensive proof of citizenship, identity, and address, every few years. Say, every 7 years. In person, face to face. Maybe with a cop right there, waiting to arrest you if you're faking it.
The very first, most basic step to restoring any semblance of citizen's faith in government - and most of us have NONE at this point - is to be able to trust the election process. In this day of massive cheap computer power and multiple existing federal and state databases, it is beyond inexcusable that any state not have 99.9% accurate voter rolls at any moment, and it ought to be nearly a capital offense to not have them 7-sigma close to 100% perfect a week or two before the elections.
The rot begins at the bottom. Purge the rolls, perfect the process, secure the balloting, and fully vest the candidates. That's merely the beginning, but it's a start.
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4/24/14, 7:52 PM
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R.K. said...
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I remember long ago in Spiro Agnew's day that Maryland was referred as "The Cradle of Graft." Once again, history repeats itself.
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4/25/14, 1:42 AM
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Tom Mann said...
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When was the last time the voter rolls purged?
I'm not aware of any voter roll any where ever having been purged.
It's time - everywhere. -
4/25/14, 8:38 AM
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