Friday, October 17, 2008

Officious McCain-Palin Volunteers

Sully quotes one of his North Carolina readers:
My husband has driven to two [polling places] in his attempt to vote today, and the scene has been so ridiculous that he has given up and will try again next week. At two of the spots where he tried to vote, he witnessed and was approached by two exceedingly aggressive McCain/Palin volunteers who were pulling people out of line, handing out brochures, and telling them "You really need to think carefully about your vote. If you plan to vote Obama, we would ask that you read this material and reconsider your vote."

At one location, after approaching my husband aggressively, these volunteers were forcefully asked to leave by an employee and were told the police would be called if they did not cease and desist.

7 comments:

  1. People can vote in multiple locations in NC? If that is the case, then two or more locations must communicate in real-time about who has voted. Otherwise, someone can vote in one location, then travel to another location to vote again. Or two people claiming to be the same person can show up at different locations simultaneously, and cast their votes.

    That is why I don't beleive that commenter's story.

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  2. The comment on Sulley's blog reads: "My husband has driven to two [polling places] in his attempt to vote today"

    No one I know in the United States has the option of multiple voting locations. We have designated polling places, which are printed on our voter registration cards. We must travel to one (1) specific location to cast our vote. At that single location, a master list is in place. The identity of each voter is then validated and verified against that master list, and the master list is updated or marked (usually the voter's name is crossed off the list) so that no one with that name may vote again at that location. Since that location is the voter's designated polling place, the voter cannot then go to a second polling place to vote again. Why? Because the voter's name is not on the second location's master list.

    Anyone claiming to "drive to two polling places in an attempt to vote" is being misleading or is genuinely clueless.

    Unless, of course, NC uses some proprietary info technology for voting applications, which allows any voter to show up at any polling place of their choosing. ( which may be the case since I don't know anyone in NC and I've never voted there.)

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  3. If Charlotte's early voting is like Nashville's early voting, one can pick between several sites to vote until a cut-off date.

    Nashville has 13 different polling places to choose from: http://www.nashville.gov/VOTE/schedule_early.htm#

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  4. I'm sure they have early voting, as we do here in TN, so you can vote at any early voting place within your county. But only once, since once you vote the machines will not allow a second identical voter.

    NotAnonymous

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  5. This is where ya'll are losing me. The guy "tried" to vote at two different places. That's not the same as voting one place and then going to vote at another. What am I missing here?

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  6. It's probably in the interpretation of the comment: I read it that he went to two places but the McP people were so obnoxious that he moved on without making it through the line.

    NotAnonymous

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