Tag: absentee ballots

State Board Meets Today to Decide if Ohio Secretary of State May Spend Up to $3M to Prepay Absentee Ballot Postage

Jason M. Reynolds

A state board is meeting today to decide if Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose can spend up to $3 million to pay for absentee ballot postage for the November elections.

The Ohio Controlling Board will consider LaRose’s request today. Their agenda is here, and more information about LaRose’s request is here.

This appropriation of state funds will be used by the Ohio Secretary of State to pay the cost of returning absentee ballots on behalf of any Ohio voter who opts to use that manner of voting in the November 3, 2020 General Election. This will not expand Ohio’s existing absentee voting opportunities and will not permit universal vote by mail. There will still be in-person voting at polling locations on Election Day, November 3, 2020. 

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In Battlegrounds, Absentee Ballot Rejections Could Triple

The Associated Press

Thousands of absentee ballots get rejected in every presidential election. This year, that problem could be much worse and potentially pivotal in hotly contested battleground states.

With the coronavirus creating a surge in mail-in balloting and postal delays reported across the country, the number of rejected ballots in November is projected to be significantly higher than previous elections.

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Virginia Republicans Wary of Proposals Facilitating Absentee Ballots

Eric Burk

Republican legislators in Virginia are sounding the alarm about risks with new provisions providing prepaid postage and drop boxes for absentee ballots. The provisions come as part of a budget amendment proposed by Governor Ralph Northam.

The amendment provides $2 million to create the ballot drop boxes and to pay postage so that voters do not have to pay to return their ballots. The General Assembly will consider the amendments sometime near the beginning of next week.

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Minnesota’s Absentee Ballots Move Closer to Becoming Mail-in Ballots

Admin

Ramsey County District Judge Sara Grewing has single-handedly overturned Minnesota election law by ruling on Aug. 3 that Minnesota’s absentee ballots no longer require the signature of a witness who is a registered voter or a notary public.

The judge also ruled that absentee ballots can be accepted after the election, as long as they are postmarked as of Election Day. Under the Minnesota law that the judge scrapped, absentee ballots had to be in by 8 p.m. on the night of the election. 

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State House Committee Denies Tennessee Voters The Ability To Register With a Political Party

Laura Baigert

NASHVILLE, Tennessee – A bill that would allow Tennessee voters the ability to register with either of the two major political parties or as unaffiliated failed in the House Local Committee. The effort, sponsored by Representative Tim Rudd (R-Murfreesboro) as HB 1398, was amended to eliminate requiring a party affiliation and eliminate closing the party primaries, as it was felt “having closed primaries would disenfranchise Independents and Democrats and Republicans who wanted to vote in each others’ primary,” according to Rudd as he presented the bill. A measure to actually close the primaries sponsored by Representative Andy Holt (R-Dresden) under HB 1273, in accordance with a December 2018 overwhelming vote by the State Executive Committee of the Tennessee Republican Party, failed in the same Committee late last month as The Tennessee Star reported. Representative Rudd made the point that, “The one group of people that are disenfranchised right now, both Democrat and Republican, are party members and activists that actually want to be registered.” Representative London Lamar (D-Memphis) questioned Representative Rudd, as she did with Representative Holt on his closed primary bill, as to whether he had consulted with both political parties in writing the bill. Rudd responded that he…

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Fifth Arrest Made In North Carolina’s 9th Congressional Ballot Case

A.P. Dillon

A fifth arrest has been made in the criminal case surrounding an absentee ballot harvesting operation in North Carolina’s 9th Congressional District. A statement by Wake County District Attorney Lorrin Freeman indicated that Rebecca Thompson was arrested on March 7th after turning herself in at the Bladen County Sheriff’s Office. Thompson is charged with conspiracy to commit felonious obstruction of justice and possession of absentee ballots. The man allegedly running the operation, Leslie McCrae Dowless, was first indicted by Grand Jury and then swiftly arrested. Dowless is charged with three counts of felonious obstruction of justice, two counts of conspiracy to commit obstruction of justice and two counts of possession of absentee ballots. Dowless, who was arrested by the State Bureau of Investigation in Bladensboro. was released on a secure bond of $30,000. Three other individuals have been arrested in connection with Dowless’ alleged absentee ballot harvesting operation. The North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation arrested Caitlyn Croom on March 3 in New Hanover County. Croom is charged with conspiracy to commit felony obstruction of justice and possession of absentee ballots. Tonia Marie Gordon and Matthew Monroe Mathis were also taken into custody March 5th Gordon turned herself in at…

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NC State House Democrat to be Seated Despite Absentee Ballot Objections

A.P. Dillon

A newly elected North Carolina State House representative will be installed despite objections made by the North Carolina Values Coalition of absentee ballot irregularities. Similar issues with absentee ballots have kept Mark Harris, the winner of North Carolina’s Ninth Congressional district, from taking his seat in Congress. Rachel Hunt, a Democrat and daughter of former North Carolina Democratic Governor Jim Hunt, defeated Rep. Bill Brawley (R-Mecklenburg) by an extremely narrow margin of just 68 votes or .08 percent. Brawley led by 52 votes on election night, but when absentee ballots were counted in the days that followed, Hunt took the lead. By the end of the week following election day, Hunt led Brawley 19,134 to 19,064. The District 103 race was the last Mecklenburg County area race to be certified sometime after a recount held on Tuesday, November 13.  The final vote tally was Hunt 19,133 and Brawley 19,065. While Brawley led in-person voting,  absentee-one-stop and absentee mail-in ballots favored Hunt with 12,427 and Brawley at 10,676. The NC Family Values Coalition issued a letter to Speaker Tim Moore on Tuesday, January 8 requesting that the General Assembly refuse to seat Hunt until an investigation into absentee ballot irregularities could be…

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Commentary: California’s Rigged Election Process Is Coming To America

Admin

by Edward Ring   The conventional wisdom among experts who monitor elections in America is unvarying: Voter fraud is statistically insignificant. These sanguine claims are made despite the fact that internal controls are often so poor, or even nonexistent on election integrity, that it is nearly impossible to know if voter fraud has even occurred. In every critical area—voter identification, voter registration, duplicate voting, absentee ballots, ineligible voting, ballot custody, ballot destruction, counterfeit ballots, voting machine tampering—gaping holes exist that invite systemic fraud. But so what? How relevant is voter fraud, if the entire system is already rigged to favor one party over the other? Come to California to see what’s going to roll out across America in time to guarantee a progressive landslide in 2020. It may be perfectly legal. But it’s so rigged it would make Boss Tweed blush. When planning for the November 2018 election, California’s Democrats didn’t just aim to pad their supermajority in the State Legislature. They weren’t going to be satisfied with a sweep of every elected state position, including governor, lieutenant governor, secretary of state, attorney general, controller, treasurer, insurance commissioner, and superintendent of public instruction. They knew they could do that, but…

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