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Sat 16 Oct, 2004 11:42 am
In a 3-0 opinion filed Friday by Judge Richard A. Posner, the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit affirmed an Illinois federal court's dismissal of claims by working mothers who contended that voting in person is a hardship and that the US Constitution requires Illinois to allow them to vote via absentee ballots. Posner wrote: "...the constitutional question is whether the restriction and resulting exclusion are reasonable given interest the restriction serves." The Court concluded that allowing absentee ballots in this instance would increase voter fraud and tallying miscalculations, and that those factors outweighed the hardships of voting in person.
This leads to my question:
what are reasons for getting the allowance (?) to vote via absentee ballot in the USA (and elswhere)?
In Germany, it is
- being away due to an important reason,
- having moved recently within the electoral constituency.
- or due to being on work or vacation, high age, illness, or other reasons, which make it difficult and hard to vote personally.
This isn't controlled at all, so literally everone could get (and gets) postal vote documents.
Usually, people vote by absentee ballot if they won't be in their home area on election day, or if they would have difficulty getting to the polls. In fact, I received a letter from a political party suggesting that I vote by absentee ballot. They sent me a form that I could send to the Supervisor of Elections to get the ballot.
In addition, on and after the 18th of October, you can vote early in a number of places in the county (usually libraries).
I think that each state may have its own regulations.
I received a similar email, Phoenix. The reasoning seemed pretty good, including leaving a paper trail, giving a break to the folks who are going to be dealing with (projected) record turnout, and freeing up your own time to help out on election day.
One of the eligibility requirements was disability -- I haven't found out yet how broadly they define that.
Here, we get the request papers for the documents together with our registration by normal post about 8 to 6 weeks in front of the election.
Well, I don't like the absentee ballot one bit here in Florida. One does not even have to have a witness. I keep getting calls asking me to return the absentee ballot. I just hang up, now. I'm going to vote early on Monday, and pay my taxes at the same time.
A witness for what and why?
Well, Walter. When my husband and I were camping in the summer here in Florida, and I wanted to vote in Virginia, I had to vote absentee ballot, but it required a witness.
I can't imagine just returning a ballot through the mail without having someone verify that I'm the one voting. There are too many ways to circumvent the system as it stands. Why complicate matters.
I understand (it's impossible here).
Circumventing the system, I mean.
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