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I posted about this in 'elections' but thought a poll would be interesting. Above is brief security cam video of 'ballot harvesting' in action.
'Ballot harvesting' is just the collection of ballots by 3rd parties. It was used extensively by Democrats in 2018, at least in CA. Perhaps it may help explain the massive turnout--overall almost 50%, compared to under 37% in the 2014 mid-terms.
Two years ago, California Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law AB1921, which legalized the so-called practice of “ballot harvesting.” Previously, only a family member or someone living in the same household was permitted to drop off mail ballots for a voter, but the new law allowed anyone – including political operatives – to collect and return them for a voter.
I can see potential problems. Most obvious is opening the door to large-scale vote buying/brokering. Another is that one side or the other could collect ballots of suspected opposition voters, and destroy them. Generally I'm skeptical of anything that might enable 'assembly line' voting (so to speak). We have all-mail voting now in WA, and I was against that for the same reason.
The practice is currently illegal in about 16 states. Do you think that ballot harvesting should be legal?
p.s. If you choose the 'allow but with restrictions' options, please explain what restrictions you'd like..
I've always thought that one of the biggest obstacles to vote fraud is just the sheer difficulty of organizing groups of people to show up at the polling place. It can be done, but would require a lot of legwork and a lot of people.
'All mail' voting reduces the difficulty, and ballot harvesting even more so. That's why I oppose both.
Ballot harvesting doubtless helped Democrats in California this cycle, but be careful what you wish for. When the floodgates are opened, both parties will try to swim. The party that doesn't will eventually go extinct anyway.
Any practice that enables 'mass production' efforts of vote collection should be looked at with a jaundiced eye.
Interesting that the only group where a number want to allow it are the conservatives - the ones who are behind the worst of the gerrymandering and voter suppression.
Interesting that the only group where a number want to allow it are the conservatives - the ones who are behind the worst of the gerrymandering and voter suppression.
It has been long known that non poll voting is the source of most voter fraud. However the Republicans believe with some justification that much of the mail in ballot is to the right. So they jump on restricting voting days and ID requirements while ignoring the more likely problem.
The whole area including harvesting needs some clever thoughts. We are not going to do away with it so we should attempt to fix it. Some sort of package that is effectively tamper proof and that clearly identifies who voted. Maybe a thumb print on each page. Or maybe we give all a secure device that can use the phone system to vote or vote on a mail in thumb drive. That is all getting cheap enough that it could work at this point.
It is now illegal in Montana, due to a ballot initiative passed in the last election.
I voted in favor of eliminating the practice.
A voter can go to the polls, or drop a ballot in a mailbox, or take it to the county elections office at the courthouse. A family member can assist a voter, but a total stranger can not.
Anyone who is incapable of doing one of those actions, so sad, you don't get to vote!
If your ballot isn't mailed in time, and gets to the elections office the day after election day (or later), it gets thrown out, regardless of the postmark. It MUST be in the elections office by the time the polls close on election day, period!
Any one who shows up at the polls MUST have identification. Strangely, there have been no lawsuits over voter identification requirements. Apparently Montanans don't have a problem with identifying themselves as people in other states seem to.
I am also glad that nearly all voting in Montana is by paper ballot, and the ballots are counted by electronic machines that are not connected to the internet. Any chance of hacking is nearly eliminated! Any recount is done by hand, not by machine.
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