ACORN

[richlevy]

I've never had a problem at the voting booth before, but I've always voted at upper middle class voting places. My current township is mostly Republican. I would be sort of surprised if I went up to the polls and found that I had either been struck from the polls or that someone there was challenging my vote. Even though I am well educated and somewhat versed in the Constitution, I would be confused. If I was a working class high school grad, how would I handle it?

In Pennsylvania, could my vote be challenged if my name does not exactly match the name on my social security card - "James K. Smith" versus "James Keith Smith" or "Jim Smith"?

What if there was a mistake and the election commission had the wrong social security number?

From here

Currently, just under 10 percent of the 250 million W-2 forms sent to SSA by employers fail to match the information in the SSA database. At least three fourths of these mismatches are unrelated to immigration status. They occur for many reasons, including name changes, incorrect use of titles, and transposition errors. All of these problems are much more likely to occur with "foreign" names, due to the likelihood of transcription errors and differing customs for treating titles and family names.

And if I allowed them to force me to fill out a provisional ballot, how would I know if it was counted?

The new ruling in Cuyahoga County mandates that provisional ballots in yellow packets must be “Rejected” if there is no “date of birth” on the packet. The Free Press obtained copies of the original “Provisional Verification Procedure” from Cuyahoga County which stated “Date of birth is not mandatory and should not reject a provisional ballot.” The original procedure required the voter’s name, address and a signature that matched the signature in the county’s database.

A lot of people consider election fraud in the form of multiple votes or illegitimate votes to be a terrible problem. I think any unreasonable barrier to a legitimate voter who wishes to exercise his or her right and duty to vote is the greater crime.

[Undertoad]

Originally Posted by richlevy

In Pennsylvania, could my vote be challenged if my name does not exactly match the name on my social security card - "James K. Smith" versus "James Keith Smith" or "Jim Smith"?

No.

What if there was a mistake and the election commission had the wrong social security number?

The election commission doesn't collect social security numbers, nor do they require them in any way on election day.

And if I allowed them to force me to fill out a provisional ballot, how would I know if it was counted?

If you really give a shit, you could easily become a poll-watcher or even assist election officials in your precinct. If you really really give a shit, you can run for Inspector of Elections or Judge of Elections and become an election official yourself. There is one Judge, and two Inspectors in each precinct. You would have to run for the office, but often who is going to run is agreed upon ahead of time. ("Cheryl doesn't want to do it any more with her arthritis getting bad.") It's a paid position, you work the poll all day from the opening through final count, and you are allowed to bring along a lesser-paid assistant if you like, so you can take a break.

[Flint]

nice font

[richlevy]

Originally Posted by Undertoad

The election commission doesn't collect social security numbers, nor do they require them in any way on election day.

From here

The only time the system was not conducting verification checks with the Social Security Administration was when the administration shut down its process for a two-day maintenance period. This did not prohibit counties from entering data, and when the system came back online the applications were processed and verified accordingly.

Now this only happened at the initial registration, which is presumably done in a non-partisan manner. However, there is nothing to prevent attempts to second guess the official determination.

The suit was one of two that had sought verification of some 200,000 new registrations that had prompted complaints by Democrats that the GOP was trying to disenfranchise voters, report the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Associated Press. The other suit, filed by the Republican Party, failed last week when the U.S. Supreme Court vacated a temporary restraining order on the ground the party likely lacked standing to pursue the case.

If they had found what they interpreted as a discrepancy, would the voter have been contacted before he or she showed up on Nov 4th?

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by Undertoad

No, they really don't.

If they tried attaching federal highway money or some such to election regulations, it would be ruled unconstitutional before the ink dried on the Federal Register with the number of the House Bill.

That's not influence, that's law, and would be challenged immediately. Influence isn't on paper, pork helps buy influence, but the influence is used outside the public record.

Originally Posted by TheMercenary

"It's Bush's fault!"

No, this time it's Cheney and his cronies.

[Undertoad]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

That's not influence, that's law, and would be challenged immediately. Influence isn't on paper, pork helps buy influence, but the influence is used outside the public record.

It's a long road between the feds and the state-level Department of State. I'm not sure what influence they could use, other than making a strong recommendation and a press release. I'm not sure who would decide on that recommendation and what means they would use. I don't know that federal involvement in elections wouldn't lead to poor results.

And most importantly, I don't expect Cicero would be quelled by the idea that feds, who would then be lobbied by companies, would produce a recommendation that would satisfy her notion that the machines can be gamed. After all, there is no evidence of gaming the machines during an election - and still 44% of Americans believe that fraud is occurring with electronic machines.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Press release? Certainly not. You're talking about official channels of on the record communication, I'm talking about influence. Influence is not official, or even public, in most cases. It's a phone call, an introduction to a friend with a problem/proposal, it's a suggestion that a particular campaign donor has a service you should look into... it's an offer you can't refuse.

[Undertoad]

Originally Posted by richlevy

From here

Wow, I was not aware of that, thanks.