You’re upset because a town official refuses to break the law? In our town violating state laws would jeopardize their job, and possibly their pension. If you think the law is unjust, fight it. But don’t ask people to break the law for you.
I just looked up my state’s rules. Absentee ballots will be sent to voters if they apply by 5 p.m. on the Thursday before the election day. To be counted, ballots must be delivered to the clerk or other municipal official by 8 p.m. on election day. Ridiculous, but legal.
If this were a Presidential election, I could envision someone taking this to court – and winning. But I suspect neither @dodgersmom nor any other voter would bother for this local election.
Exactly. If this happened during a presidential election, the you-know-what would be hitting the fan!
Look, I get it - someone, somewhere down the line, didn’t do their job. But I think the town should be held responsible for that. Delay the counting of ANY ballots until all the ballots are received. Sure, everyone would raise a fuss . . . but chances are, the next time 'round, the people responsible for preparing the ballot would get it done in time. “We screwed up, so you don’t get to vote” just doesn’t cut it with me.
But your son’s ballot got there today…Friday. If he had been there…he could,have filled it out…and sent it with regular postage…and it would have arrived by 5 on Tuesday.
That’s quite a generous assumption.
We know it took three days to reach him. Presumably, it would take three days to be returned. So, yes, if he received notice at 10:00 am that there was mail waiting for him, and he went immediately to the student postal center, read the entire ballot on the spot, filled it out, and handed it back to the postal clerk for mailing, it might well have arrived by Tuesday.
That’s not a real world scenario, however, for my son or for anyone else - except possibly a Florida snowbird with nothing else to do other than hang around the post office. Chances are the ballot would not actually have been received until much later in the day, and would not have been back in the mail again until at least Saturday and quite possibly Monday (depending on outgoing mail service).
Some absentee ballots are counted if they are postmarked by election day. Up to the election officials or state/local law.
I don’t think most election laws take into account the mailing time. In the olden days, absentee voting was for the few people who couldn’t be there on election day, and were often mailed to the home address an returned in local mail (one day or so). I remember my friend voted absentee because he was going to have surgery near election day. Now I live in a state where many elections are only conducted by mail in (or drop off) ballots.
Let us know what you find out, but I don’t think your elections officials did anything wrong. They mailed out the requested form with enough time to return it (if he were home).
You can file a complaint with whomever is in charge of elections in your state. They will investigate the complaint. They are required to do so.
But if this is your son’s absentee ballot, the complaint would need to come from him…because he is the one affected.
"Could be one of two things:
a. Incompetence or just not thinking things through.
b. A deliberate attempt to make it more difficult for some demographics to vote."
ummmm… B? seriously they are trying to exclude a demographic from voting for the dog catcher and board of the local library? seriously? which demographic would that be? college students on spring break?
or A. a government bureaucracy that runs like a government bureaucracy…I go with A.
In my state, absentee voting rules apply the same to all elections, and the state has made voting more difficult generally and for absentee voters. There is some indication (the matter currently is being litigated in federal court) that the voting law changes are intended to make it harder for members of certain groups (e.g., college students) to vote.
Voter suppression is a much bigger issue than voter fraud.
While not the same, a similar type of attempted veiled voter blockage (my words) occurred in our area a few years back. For well over 20 years, every single one of our elections had in person voting at the local elementary school. Then there were some very important local and state initiatives being voted on, and like many in my neighborhood, I had to wait until after work to go and vote (the lines get incredibly long in the morning) - I went home, parked my car, and walked to the school (2 blocks away) where I found several others looking very confused. Why is the auditorium closed and locked? No signage, nothing. It was only then that I looked and saw that our voting location had been changed (remember, it had been at least 20 years that we voted in the same place…every…single…time) - to 2 miles away. Unlike others, I did get in the car and drive to the new location. Surprise, surprise…many did not. Oh, and yes, every election since has been back at our local elementary school.
I hate feeling paranoid about such things but it certainly makes me wonder…
There have been posters here who vehemently expressed the opinion that college students should not vote at their college address because they are only temporarily residents of that area. So it is not out of the question that mailing the absentee ballots during the local college’s spring break is a deliberate attempt to reduce college student voting.
Now how would the town folks have any idea when spring break was at THIS kid’s college…since spring break varies wildly with some schools having it sometime in March and others having it in April?
This isn’t a local college…the kid is OOS.
In addition, the election time is set…and the ballots are sent out a certain number of days (or weeks) prior to the election. If it’s spring break…that is NOT the town’s fault. The student could,have come HOME for spring break, right? The absentee ballot could have been mailed to the home address.
And really, a ballot mailed back on Friday, would very likely reach the town by Tuesday.
I was referring to the situation where the town knows when the local residential college has its breaks and sets election dates during the breaks to minimize student voting.
Obviously, in the opposite situation, where a student retains registration at his/her parents’ place and votes absentee, the town where the parents’ place would not be manipulating the election date regarding that student’s away college.
This made me laugh! My kid hasn’t been home for spring break since middle school - he attended high school on the other side of the country, and a trip home for spring break was out of the question. And I never thought to ask him this year if he really wanted to participate in that fully paid international trip . . . when he could have come home and voted for town dog catcher instead!
I’m being facetious, of course. Our small town can’t afford its own dog catcher.
Of course I think his choice was his choice…and a good one.
But that has NO bearing on the whereabouts of his absentee ballot…or when it should have been sent or received or mailed back.
If he was away…he was away. That is that. But that is not the concern or the fault of the election folks.
Yes. Is your S as upset about all of this as you are? If he is, then let HIM do all the work of registering a complaint. If not, then let it go.
Source please? (And I’m reasonably certain that the answer is, ‘No’ since voting is a states’ right thingy.)
“Yes. Is your S as upset about all of this as you are? If he is, then let HIM do all the work of registering a complaint. If not, then let it go.”
filing a complaint is a waste of time and energy. where I live the state police have been setting up roadblocks at an artery that narrows down to 1 lane for 1/8 of a mile and than hits the six lane hwy. the traffic backs up to another connector and it is 3-4-5 times a week. I want to stop and say my good friends 1000x of people are being delayed a 1/2 hour or more every day by your actions. or maybe write a letter. (Im sure they will thank me for my civic participation as a citizen in helping the governemnt not harass or inconvenience its population)
the voting bureaucracy in this country can not be expected to perform above the level of what they are,a government bureaucracy. there is no conspiracy.