4 ms·

Does it matter? I don't mean that flippantly. - The number of total votes by email may not be greater than the margin anyway - In-person voting also has basic

by qeorge 14y ago

Does it matter? I don't mean that flippantly. - The number of total votes by email may not be greater than the margin anyway - In-person voting also has basically no authentication, and there's been little to no voter fraud incidents - To commit large scale fraud you'd need to identify a large list of people who definitely are registered and didn't vote in person. You'd then need to request ballots and respond for each person individually. Shouldn't it be very easy to spot a pattern, were someone to attempt this? My biggest concern would be that it unfairly favors some demographic more than another (which the OP brings up). But that's still better than disenfranchising everyone. To be honest, I'm fairly impressed with the reaction time and the lack of technophobia on the part of the NJ govt. Its a simple solution that does a lot of good.

MichaelApproved 14y ago
"- The number of total votes by email may not be greater than the margin anyway" You're thinking about the presidential race, which, for NJ, should be decisive. What you're forgetting about are city and state wide campaigns which could be decided by a few hundred or even a few dozen votes.
eli 14y ago
In-person voting fraud is a non-issue because it's extremely risky and it's self-limiting -- how many polling places could one person possibly hit in a single day? Your time would almost certainly be better spent helping your favored candidate's (legal) get out the vote operation.
tptacek 14y ago
No, it probably doesn't matter. Voters are only allowed to cast ballots via email if they've been displaced by the storm (or are a first responder on-site mitigating storm damage), and must request a ballot from their precinct to vote via email. The number of people who will cast these ballots will probably be way below the margin, and all of them will be traceable in the event of a close election or recount.

by qeorge 14y ago

MichaelApproved 14y ago

"- The number of total votes by email may not be greater than the margin anyway" You're thinking about the presidential race, which, for NJ, should be decisive. What you're forgetting about are city and state wide campaigns which could be decided by a few hundred or even a few dozen votes.

eli 14y ago

In-person voting fraud is a non-issue because it's extremely risky and it's self-limiting -- how many polling places could one person possibly hit in a single day? Your time would almost certainly be better spent helping your favored candidate's (legal) get out the vote operation.

tptacek 14y ago

No, it probably doesn't matter. Voters are only allowed to cast ballots via email if they've been displaced by the storm (or are a first responder on-site mitigating storm damage), and must request a ballot from their precinct to vote via email. The number of people who will cast these ballots will probably be way below the margin, and all of them will be traceable in the event of a close election or recount.