Posted on 11/09/2010 7:38:51 AM PST by rockinonritalin
East Syracuse (WSYR-TV) - If you're one of the more than 8,000 people in Central New York who voted by absentee ballot in the 25th Congressional Race, you may have received a phone call from someone Monday, asking you which candidate you voted for. You've contacted us, wondering how these callers knew you voted absentee and whether it's legal for them to be asking for this information.
The Board of Elections in each county maintains a list of the names of voters who request absentee ballots in any given race. That list, believe it or not, is public information. In this case, it was provided to both Congressman Dan Maffei's campaign upon request as well as his opponent Ann Marie Buerkel. Maffei decided to use it.
(Excerpt) Read more at 9wsyr.com ...
Incumbent Democrat Maffei is setting the stage for a Florida-style recount. (http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2010/11/legal_battle_over_undecided_25.html)
About Damned Time!!!!!!!!!
Having the list public is what proved voter fraud in another state.
When contacted the people who supposedly voted absentee stated they NEVER voted at all.
There is a good reason for these requests for absentee ballots to be public information.
OK with you for the candidate to also ask who they voted for? That’s the issue.
You don’t have to answer, and if I absenteed for this guy I would answer.
Given the people who voted for Angle and had the machine vote for Ried........
I don’t know the answer but voter fraud is a serious SERIOUS issue.
They are making a list of ballots that went to Buerkle, and they will try to disqualify each and every one of them.
They want to know which ballots to contest. They won’t contest people who say they voted for the rat, they will contest every ballot who did not answer.
Another possibility is that they are trying to put Buerkle absentee voters on the spot. They are being called at home by the Maffei campaign and asking them directly who they voted for. What if they get nervous and say they voted for Maffei even though they didn’t? Any inconsistencies like this could be used to contest a vote.
Question: When an absentee ballot return envelope is opened, is the enclosed ballot put in a separate pile before being opened and counted (so that people in the clerk’s office are not able to link the voter with his vote choices?)
In other words, is the vote still confidential if you vote absentee? It should be, and wouldn’t be hard to do, but is it?
And if it is, then the concern about just challenging voters who voted a particular way is unjustified, as the ballots wouldn’t be linked to individual voters; just the fact that they voted absentee would be available.
It seems more likely that the callers are trying to get a rough count of the breakdown of the absentee vote, to see if it correlates with the actual breakdown. (Plus of course they will add their names to the get out the vote effort next election.)
Personally, I think that in every close election a postcard should be sent out to all registered voters who cast a vote in the election informing them that they voted, and the day and location that their ballot was recorded. That would at least alert voters that their name had been used in an election. Plus, presumably many of the fraudulent voters’ postcards would be returned as undeliverable including the dead ones. That would facilitate investigations into who registered them in the first place.
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