I did early voting this morning. For Durham County it's next door to the Board of Elections office, across the street from the old ballpark. There was no line so I got in and out pretty quickly. I was kind of surprised that they didn't ask for ID, but at dinner this evening my friend Joe told me that it's illegal (everywhere but Arizona) to ask voters for ID. I don't know how I feel about that. On the one hand, I can see that requiring ID would be an obstacle to poor people who might not have a driver's license. But on the other, I'm a little alarmed by the idea that anyone who knows my name and street address could vote in my name.
It seems like early voting combined with no ID requirement could make voter fraud really easy. Just go to early voting and vote in someone else's name, then on election day go to your own precinct and vote in your own name. Note: I am not advocating anyone do this! On the contrary, I think it's pretty damned scary. I wonder what they do if something like that happens? I mean if you showed up at your polling place on election day and your vote had already been cast by someone else, what can you do? Anything?
After voting I walked a couple of doors down to the board of elections office, and asked the woman at the front desk if they have any plans to convert Durham County to electronic voting machines. She seemed a little flummoxed by the question; she didn't really answer one way or the other. I told her that I like the system we have now (for those of you not in Durham County, we use optically scanned paper ballots), and I hope we don't change, because I think this system is much safer. She said, "We all feel the same way." She suggested I talk to the guy inside the office, she didn't identify him but the sign on his desk said Michael Ashe. Later I looked him up and he's the director of the board of elections. Unfortunately just as I started to talk to him, he got a phone call that sounded like it was going to take a while, so I left.
So I didn't get any concrete information, but I was encouraged by the remark that they all prefer the current system too. I have to say, I don't know where this push towards paperless electronic voting machines came from. What is the rationale for switching to those machines? I mean sincerely, not just "so it's easier for them to steal elections."
Word of the week, "shudder." In use today as I think about voter fraud. Ugh. Ugh. Ugh. Bury my head in the sand is what I want to do, but I suspect that won't work.
Thanks for the update from Durham.
correction: according to the NC Coalition for Verified Voting, ID is required to vote in Arizona, Indiana, and Florida. And in every state ID is required the first time you vote, if you registered by mail.
The voter ID thing is a big deal now, in court in a lot of states and frankly I haven't kept up where it's winning or losing. I take the rather extremist position that it is pure evil, both as a way to keep people from voting and to tie every useful activity into your state issued ID. But expect to see more of it over the next few years.
You'll be happy to know that Durham County is very committed to the optical scan system we have now. I have enjoyed many conversations with Mike Ashe over this and attended one of the sales pitches when we had to buy new machines thanks to state law. Mike is a super nice guy and the model of how public servants should conduct themselves. The same is true of his staff, many of whom predate him in the job. I have worked with the state board, all 100 county BoEs in NC and many state elections offices across the country and I can honestly and proudly say we have the best elections staff of them all right here in Durham.
You know, I don't understand any of the legitimate reasons why some prefer electronic voting machines save one. They're supposed to be cheaper in the long run, but they're not. They're supposed to be easier for poll workers to manage, but they're not. The one thing they do well (if not necessarily accurately) is report the results very quickly. Yet the only segment of our society which needs this feature is the media. Screw them. I'd much rather have an accurate vote than to have the results by the 11 o'clock news.
George Gilbert of the Guilford County BoE is the leading NC proponent of electronic voting machines. I imagine if you do a search on him you can get his side of the story.