Texas early voting puts new election law back in spotlight: The first primary of 2022 will test the impact of the rules.

[LouC]

Which state do you think has the best voting systems, which the worst ?

Oregon the best and Alabama the worst.

 

[longview]

In 2018, there were 1,549,573 votes cast in the R primary and 1,042,914 votes in the D primary for Senate.

Senator Ted Cruz (R) then received 4,260,553 votes in the general election and 4,045,632 votes went to O'Rourke (51-48).

The number of primary votes in the Governor primaries was pretty similar to the ones above, but Gov. Abbott (R) won by a much bigger margin than Cruz in the general election (56-43).

2018 United States Senate election in Texas - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

2018 Texas gubernatorial election - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Yep, if the counts are in the same ballpark, then all the complaints about voter suppression is meaningless.
Texas has more hours of early voting, not less, and the requirement to vote absentee, have remained the same.

 

[mrjurrs]

What baby files taxes?

What baby has bank accounts?

Any baby that has grandparents that want to start contributing to a college fund.

 

[mrjurrs]

Obviously those ballots being rejected are not being rejected because the voter does not have required ID Numbers but because those numbers were not included in the proper form when returning the mail in ballot.

So it is simply a matter of curing the ballot and mailing it back after receipt of the rejected ballot. Also, not certain yet, but I am thinking the rejected ballot folks if not getting their ballots returned in time via mail would still be able to vote in person in any in person early voting location or at the Polls on Primary Day. They would then just need to have the mail in ballot spoiled and present proper ID at the Polling location.

Not that obvious. When is the election? What are the rejections for?

And do you trust TX polling places to go through the process for people showing up at the polls with spoiled ballots?

 

[longview]

Not that obvious. When is the election? What are the rejections for?

And do you trust TX polling places to go through the process for people showing up at the polls with spoiled ballots?

I think you are misunderstanding what the issue is, the rejections are for a flood of people sending in application to vote by mail,
and Texas has always had fairly limited eligibility for those who vote by mail.
The people going to the polling places simply must be registered to vote, and have a valid ID (Which is free if you cannot afford it).

 

[dcsports]

Not that obvious. When is the election? What are the rejections for?

And do you trust TX polling places to go through the process for people showing up at the polls with spoiled ballots?

Just highlighting again - echoing longview - because many people are saying "ballots".

These are not ballots being rejected, but applications to vote by mail because the form is incomplete. As the article states, applicants are given the opportunity to correct the application.

 

[mrjurrs]

Just highlighting again - echoing longview - because many people are saying "ballots".

These are not ballots being rejected, but applications to vote by mail because the form is incomplete. As the article states, applicants are given the opportunity to correct the application.

Really, it's that simple? From the same article...
"The new ID rules have already prompted hundreds of rejected ballot requests, often because voters did not provide any ID numbers at all. But even counties that saw few request rejections are now grappling with high rates of faulty ballots. That includes Hays County, where about 30% of the voters who had already returned their mail-in ballots had not filled out the ID requirement. Those are early figures, as ballots are only starting to trickle in, so Jennifer Anderson, the county’s elections administrator, is hoping voter outreach efforts will help curb more errors.

“We usually have a very low rejection rate so it’s not something we want to see in Hays County,” Anderson said."

 

[mrjurrs]

Just highlighting again - echoing longview - because many people are saying "ballots".

These are not ballots being rejected, but applications to vote by mail because the form is incomplete. As the article states, applicants are given the opportunity to correct the application.

They are ballots. Harris County primary election takes place March 1, 2022.

Next time try reading the cited source.

 

[mrjurrs]

I think you are misunderstanding what the issue is, the rejections are for a flood of people sending in application to vote by mail,
and Texas has always had fairly limited eligibility for those who vote by mail.
The people going to the polling places simply must be registered to vote, and have a valid ID (Which is free if you cannot afford it).

I see now that my first response to this was incorrect. Let's try this one...

You are wrong. These are ballots for the 3.1.22 Harris County election.

 

[dcsports]

They are ballots. Harris County primary election takes place March 1, 2022.

Next time try reading the cited source.

hmmm.. so it was talking applications. Maybe you should read it?

"Some counties had trouble matching original voter registration records to the information provided by voters on their mail ballot applications and, in some cases, voters appeared to have their applications rejected because they failed to include all of the newly required information."

It does also cite some issues with initial mail in ballots though.

 

[longview]

Really, it's that simple? From the same article...
"The new ID rules have already prompted hundreds of rejected ballot requests, often because voters did not provide any ID numbers at all. But even counties that saw few request rejections are now grappling with high rates of faulty ballots. That includes Hays County, where about 30% of the voters who had already returned their mail-in ballots had not filled out the ID requirement. Those are early figures, as ballots are only starting to trickle in, so Jennifer Anderson, the county’s elections administrator, is hoping voter outreach efforts will help curb more errors.

“We usually have a very low rejection rate so it’s not something we want to see in Hays County,” Anderson said."

Then the author of the article is wrong, because it is applications being rejected, not ballots, besides if it were ballots that were rejected, what election were they for?

 

[longview]

I see now that my first response to this was incorrect. Let's try this one...

You are wrong. These are ballots for the 3.1.22 Harris County election.

So they rejected ballots for an election that early voting only opened today, no the article is incorrect,
what was rejected were applications to vote absentee, Those who are allowed to do this have not changed.
Application for a Ballot by Mail

To be eligible to vote early by mail in Texas, you must:​

• be 65 years or older;
• be sick or disabled;
• be out of the county on election day and during the period for early voting by personal appearance; or
• be expected to give birth within three weeks before or after Election Day; or
• be confined in jail, but otherwise eligible.

So anyone who sends in an application knowing that they do not qualify is rejected.
But it is an application to vote absentee that is rejected, not a ballot!
Vote-by-mail rejections are testing integrity of Texas Republicans’ voting law

With less than a month left to vote by mail in the March primary election, hundreds of applications for mail-in ballots are being rejected
as both Texas voters and local election officials decipher new ID requirements enacted by Republican lawmakers.

what was rejected, " applications for mail-in ballots" not actual ballots!

 

[Liberal7360]

I am no friend of electronic voting equipment and I say that as a young person with a good knowledge of IT.

They can be hacked and manipulated. So better to have all-paper elections, like we have here.

But in the US, you have ballots with 30 or so elections on it, not like we have here just 1 or 2 choices.

So, I guess, you guys have no other choice because otherwise you'd be counting ballots for weeks.

No, at least not in my state.

My state is 100% mail in PAPER ballots.

No one can go to a polling place to vote. There are none.

No one can vote on a machine. We don't have any voting machines.

We do have long voting ballots some years. Some years we don't. It just depends on how many offices are up for election and how many ballot initiatives are on the ballot.

We have absolutely no problem counting ballots.

 

[Liberal7360]

Yeah, Austria has a population for your entire country about the size of my state (NJ)

What works there wouldn’t necessarily work in the US simply because of the difference in population size

No that doesn't fly.

My state has nearly 8 million people

We are 100% mail in paper ballot.

Austria has 9 million people.

We have absolutely no problem with voting, counting those votes and reporting them with the state.

Of course the nation can go 100% mail in paper ballot.

All that's needed is the same infrastructure and process we have in my state.

First of all, we don't wait until polls close on Election Day to start counting ballots. They are counted as they are received. Which gives weeks for those ballots to be counted.

Second, when mechanical counting machines are used, there is no sound argument that there are too many people and it will take too long. Mechanical counting machines count ballots extremely fast and as evidenced by my state and others, doesn't cause any slow downs to counting the votes.

Finally, my state isn't the only 100% mail in paper ballot and none of us have any problems counting them in time or any of the other excuses that are used to prevent convenient, early mail in voting.

 

[longview]

I am no friend of electronic voting equipment and I say that as a young person with a good knowledge of IT.

They can be hacked and manipulated. So better to have all-paper elections, like we have here.

But in the US, you have ballots with 30 or so elections on it, not like we have here just 1 or 2 choices.

So, I guess, you guys have no other choice because otherwise you'd be counting ballots for weeks.

The electronic ballots are very secure and not in a open network.
A fishing buddy worked for one of the companies who make the boxes, and we had some long technical discussions about the safeguards.
The precinct judge, has a central station, when a ballot is cast the cyclic redundancy check (CRC) for that ballot is generated, and stored on their station.
at the end of the election, the tabulation server, and the Judges server, are physically brought to a central location, and the CRC's for every ballot of the day MUST match.
There is also some undisclosed encryption between the ballot devices and the recording server and the judges server, but no outside connection.

 

[Liberal7360]

Yeah, Austria has a population for your entire country about the size of my state (NJ)

What works there wouldn’t necessarily work in the US simply because of the difference in population size

One more point.

California had 15,423,301 people vote by mail in ballot in 2020.

They had no problem counting those votes.

Austria has 9 million people.

So if California can count over 15 million votes, my state can count nearly 8 million votes and other states who have 100% mail in voting can count their votes in time for an election, so can the rest of the nation.

 

[BirdinHand]

One more point.

California had 15,423,301 people vote by mail in ballot in 2020.

They had no problem counting those votes.

Austria has 9 million people.

So if California can count over 15 million votes, my state can count nearly 8 million votes and other states who have 100% mail in voting can count their votes in time for an election, so can the rest of the nation.

You’re very confident in the abilities of some of these board of elections

Or that they even want to do it.

 

[mrjurrs]

hmmm.. so it was talking applications. Maybe you should read it?

"Some counties had trouble matching original voter registration records to the information provided by voters on their mail ballot applications and, in some cases, voters appeared to have their applications rejected because they failed to include all of the newly required information."

It does also cite some issues with initial mail in ballots though.

I don't believe 'some counties' is referring to Harris County, the county with an election in 15 days.

 

[mrjurrs]

Then the author of the article is wrong, because it is applications being rejected, not ballots, besides if it were ballots that were rejected, what election were they for?

The Harris County election on 3.1.22

 

[mrjurrs]

So they rejected ballots for an election that early voting only opened today, no the article is incorrect,
what was rejected were applications to vote absentee, Those who are allowed to do this have not changed.
Application for a Ballot by Mail

So anyone who sends in an application knowing that they do not qualify is rejected.
But it is an application to vote absentee that is rejected, not a ballot!
Vote-by-mail rejections are testing integrity of Texas Republicans’ voting law

what was rejected, " applications for mail-in ballots" not actual ballots!

I'll trust the editor, not your interpretation. The election is 3.1.22. Ballots were sent out, those being returned are being rejected at previously unseen rates.

 

[longview]

The Harris County election on 3.1.22

So the Texas Turbine article from Feb 10 2022, was about ballots that were rejected 4 days before early voting began?
By the way the Harris County election officials are all democrats.

 

[longview]

I'll trust the editor, not your interpretation. The election is 3.1.22. Ballots were sent out, those being returned are being rejected at previously unseen rates.

They can and do reject improper ballots, but you also have to keep in mind that Mail in ballots are counted last, because if the person
votes in person, and votes by mail, the mail in ballot is thrown out.
I have been voting in Harris county since 1984, the process is not complicated, and early voting is open to everyone.

 

[mrjurrs]

So the Texas Turbine article from Feb 10 2022, was about ballots that were rejected 4 days before early voting began?
By the way the Harris County election officials are all democrats.

Are you surprised that D's follow the law? Source for your claim? Looks like nonpartisan offices to me.

 

[mrjurrs]

They can and do reject improper ballots, but you also have to keep in mind that Mail in ballots are counted last, because if the person
votes in person, and votes by mail, the mail in ballot is thrown out.
I have been voting in Harris county since 1984, the process is not complicated, and early voting is open to everyone.

Not anymore it's not.

 

[longview]

Are you surprised that D's follow the law? Source for your claim? Looks like nonpartisan offices to me.

Would you rather they allow in ballots and applications that did not meet the requirement to vote?