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Pull Lever, Don't Snap Shutter: It May Be Illegal To Post Your Ballot

Posted by timothy on from the underground-ballot-parties dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Proud voters are already posting their ballots on Instagram but ProPublica's Lois Beckett reports that you may want to check your state laws first since showing your marked ballot to other people is actually illegal in many states."

8 of 383 comments (clear)

  1. Katy Perry's Dress by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I wonder if she will be arrested as she had hers printed on her rubber dress.

    http://www.webpronews.com/katy-perry-skintight-ballot-dress-hits-election-rallies-2012-11

  2. 1st Amendment by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Interesting

    Would like to see someone get prosecuted over this. This is a clear freedom of speech issue and the government would lose.

  3. It's easy to sell your vote by killmenow · · Score: 3, Interesting

    It's unfortunately all too easy.

    1. Request absentee ballot
    2. Receive absentee ballot
    3. Sign absentee ballot
    4. Receive payment from buyer
    5. Hand over absentee ballot to buyer
    6. Walk away while they fill it out however they like and mail it in for you

    IMHO, this is the easiest, simplest, and most commonly abused form of voter fraud. Yet none of the supposed "voter fraud" measures proposed predominantly by Republicans address this at all. It's all a smoke screen for suppressing voters that typically lean Democrat.

    "Preventing Democratic Votes" under the guise of "Preventing Voter Fraud"

    1. Re:It's easy to sell your vote by BlackSnake112 · · Score: 5, Interesting

      There is the dead voting thing. I know of two examples. We received a voter ID card for two of my grandparents. Both registered Democrat. One died 19 years ago and the other died 20 years ago. Only this year we received their new voter ID cards. Odd since I know both were not registered Democrats. When we called it in saying that these people have been dead for a while now, we were initially told to let it be. Why were we trying to take away their right to vote. Even after stating that these people were dead for 20 years and offering to mail or fax in their death certificates we were told to leave it alone. A few other calls and getting managers we got it straightened out. Also both people died in different states. They never lived in the state where we received the voter ID cards for them. How many other people would just leave it alone?

      I believe voter fraud is more common then is being reported. Not many people look into it. If no one is looking no one is reporting it. Also look at the black panthers in Philadelphia. Even this year they are outside polling places. isn't voter intimidation against the law as well?

  4. Re:Good reason for it to be illegal by ackthpt · · Score: 4, Interesting

    If you can prove how you voted, to anybody, you can demonstrate to some interested third party that you voted the way they wanted you to. Which means you could sell your vote, or be coerced into voting a certain way.

    That's also why any voting proposals that involve a receipt showing that your vote for Smith rather than Jones are a bad idea, as are any proposals involving a way to look up your own vote online after the election.

    Let's just hand them a receipt with a checksum on it, which can't be decrypted, but can show whether vote was tampered with by some Diaboldical CEO who promised to deliver votes to a certain candidate.

    --

    A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
  5. Re:Good reason for it to be illegal by Belial6 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I agree, but I would add one more stipulation. The human readable receipt should be printed on stiff paper and be machine readable as well. This way, third party auditors could recount electronically extremely quickly. A group like the ACLU should be able to walk in with a small card reader, and under official supervision, they should be able to recount all of the votes by just putting the cards in their reader and letting them run through.

    If the votes don't come out the same, it would make it much easier to track down legitimate technical errors, or shenanigans. Since they are human readable, anyone wanting a hand vote could still do it.

  6. Re:Good reason for it to be illegal by cdrguru · · Score: 4, Interesting

    What language is this paper ballot printed in? English? Or the language the person selected when requesting a ballot?

    You see, the US does not have an official language that is used for all government interaction like many other countries have. Partly because of this it is a requirement in many locations to supply ballots in any language the voter requests. This includes Navajo, Spanish, Russian and a whole bunch of other languages. This is one of the main reasons why electronic voting machines are required in some places. Printing ballots in obscure African languages was not going to happen.

    One way out of this is for English to become the official and only government interaction language for the US. Another is for all government interaction to be done in some electronic fashion with the screen displaying whatever language the user selects, probably up to and including Klingon.

  7. Re:As it should be. by VortexCortex · · Score: 2, Interesting

    OK, fuck. I'll play devils advocate. I put the gun to your head. I tell you to vote via mail so I can watch you fucking vote. Now what, dipshit?