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Soberin · 05-19-2008, 09:35 PM

I got my ballot today. It requires my name and USFA number on the envelope to be "validated." I will not vote under this system, and I bet many others will not either. Sorry T, but this is over.

jfarmer · 05-19-2008, 09:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Soberin

I got my ballot today. It requires my name and USFA number on the envelope to be "validated." I will not vote under this system, and I bet many others will not either. Sorry T, but this is over.

Why is that keeping you from voting? Afraid of repercussions from the National office and/or the winning slate? The directions explicitly state that the name & number will be used to validate the ballot, before the ballot is looked at, then separated so that no one will know how you voted. Do you have some reason to believe that it will not be don that way?

Peach · 05-19-2008, 09:45 PM

This kind of thing is pretty common procedure for the associations I belong to, in order to prevent people from voting fraudulently. All you have to do is sign and print your name, and enter your number, so they can check your name off as having voted. The inside ballot, the one that is counted, does not have your name on it anywhere. It's merely the equivalent of showing ID when you vote in person.

mgriff · 05-19-2008, 09:57 PM

It's even quite similar to what I do regularly as a permanent absentee voter in California--I have to sign the outside of the envelope so they can verify that I am a currently registered voter in that precinct.

Standard operating procedure for most mail-in votes I've ever participated in.

Mary

Soberin · 05-19-2008, 10:25 PM

All of what you say is true. However, the natural reaction to voting in this country is to have complete privacy, which cannot be assured under this mail-in system. As a result, I predict that people will hesitate to vote, the turnout will be low, and the results will not be truly representative of the USFA members.

gorgie101 · 05-19-2008, 10:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Soberin

All of what you say is true. However, the natural reaction to voting in this country is to have complete privacy, which cannot be assured under this mail-in system. As a result, I predict that people will hesitate to vote, the turnout will be low, and the results will not be truly representative of the USFA members.

I would predict this response regardless of how the voting is done. I mean just look at local government elections or national voter turn out. People want the right to vote but are too lazy to get out of the house and do it; or in this case mail it.

mrbiggs · 05-19-2008, 10:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Soberin

All of what you say is true. However, the natural reaction to voting in this country is to have complete privacy, which cannot be assured under this mail-in system. As a result, I predict that people will hesitate to vote, the turnout will be low, and the results will not be truly representative of the USFA members.

You expected to vote anonymously? How would that even be possible?

arc · 05-19-2008, 11:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Soberin

All of what you say is true. However, the natural reaction to voting in this country is to have complete privacy, which cannot be assured under this mail-in system. As a result, I predict that people will hesitate to vote, the turnout will be low, and the results will not be truly representative of the USFA members.

Even federal/state/local governmental elections are not anonymous. At a minimum, you have to identify yourself to local election workers when voting in person, and when voting absentee through the mail, one has to provide sufficient identifying information on the exterior envelope and through the absentee ballot request such that the ballot can be validated, similar to the ballot validaion in this election.

Peach · 05-20-2008, 05:46 AM

We used to be entitled to anonymous voting in Philadelphia. Heck, dead people could vote. Numerous times.

Soberin · 05-20-2008, 06:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Peach

We used to be entitled to anonymous voting in Philadelphia. Heck, dead people could vote. Numerous times.

Chicago too. That's what made America great.

KD5MDK · 05-20-2008, 08:25 AM

That's not anonymous. If it was anonymous, how would you know they were dead? It was identified, just not with particularly rigorous verification...

IHateMrPotatohead · 05-20-2008, 08:35 AM

I haven't received my ballot yet. Am I the only one?

keith · 05-20-2008, 09:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by IHateMrPotatohead

I haven't received my ballot yet. Am I the only one?

Why should you get a ballot when you have already voted?

piste off · 05-20-2008, 11:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Peach

We used to be entitled to anonymous voting in Philadelphia. Heck, dead people could vote. Numerous times.

So that is what the kid in The Sixth Sense was seeing.

Rick

Peach · 05-20-2008, 11:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by piste off

So that is what the kid in The Sixth Sense was seeing.

Rick

Yup--Voters.

Hobbes · 05-20-2008, 11:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Soberin

I got my ballot today. It requires my name and USFA number on the envelope to be "validated." I will not vote under this system, and I bet many others will not either. Sorry T, but this is over.

I don't understand your problem with this system. How are hey supposed to know you are really a USFA member voting, or that you have not voted already in the election? It is not going to be on the actual ballot. With all the garbagey back and forth on the forums it would not surprise me if some people would be willing to cheat to see the ones they support have a better chance. It is a necessary safeguard.

And even if your name was on the actual ballot and the election was not anonymous; what do you think they would do if they knew how you voted? all of the sudden you are going to be looked down upon by those you did not vote for, and they will send their covert forces to silence your voice of dissent? I think you are over reacting to the idea of your name being tied to your vote. And I hope most people won't care either.

Philistine · 05-20-2008, 11:54 AM

For all intents and purposes, it's equivalent to putting a return address label on the envelope.

As many people have pointed out, there doesn't seem to be a way to verify voting by mail without some sort of identifying feature on the envelope. Seems like a non-issue to me.

--Philistine

TBean · 05-20-2008, 12:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Soberin

I got my ballot today. It requires my name and USFA number on the envelope to be "validated." I will not vote under this system, and I bet many others will not either. Sorry T, but this is over.

You have to be kidding me, right? What do you think is going to happen, that one of the six people in the national office are going to tell everyone how you voted and you will be blacklisted from fencing for your vote?

Honest to goodness, I am certain they have better things to do with thier time.

Capt. Slo-mo · 05-20-2008, 12:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jfarmer

Why is that keeping you from voting? Afraid of repercussions from the National office and/or the winning slate?

Soberin is afraid that, if he votes for the loser, the hobnailed-Ballestra-wearing thugs from the winning slate will fleche through his door late at night, and take him off to the Sam Cheris Memorial Re-education and Indoctrination Center for the Good of Fencing in Passaic, NJ.

There, the heirs of Stanley Kubrick will wire his eyes open, and he will be forced to watch countless hours of Inquartata lectures on the intricacies of the Keynesian economic model. That, or Mariah Carey music videos.

Either way, he's justifiably terrorized.

KD5MDK · 05-20-2008, 01:34 PM

Jeff Bukantz lives in Passaic?