Long time BRAD BLOG reader Cary Aye tells us via Facebook:
After several conversations with the poll workers as to why I would not vote on unverifiable machines, I said I was prepared to sit here and wait for the ballots that were “in route”.
They had already broken down the stands for the paper voting and there were 5 other people in the last of the line when at 8:10, a worker showed up with the ballots. Karma win!
Not sure what that means politically, but we like the “Karma win!” St. Louis County has been notoriously terrible at forcing voters to use 100% unverifiable touch-screen systems over the years, even though all Missouri voters are allowed to vote on paper ballots — if they know to ask one.
Good work, Carey! Thank you for fighting for a verifiable vote — especially in Missouri and particularly in Ferguson!
UPDATE 7:09p PT: A family member of ours from St. Louis County, MO calls to say that paper ballots ran out in many locations, and that voters are still in line two hours after polls have closed. If you were in line as of poll close at 7p CT, you are still allowed to vote. Keep waiting, St. Louis voters!
UPDATE 12:44a PT: A few more strange details about all of this, reported by local media today, seem worth noting here for now…
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports:
Rita Days, the Democratic director of election for St. Louis County, said her office usually plans for 15 percent of the voters taking paper ballots. The rest would use the electronic voting machines.
But for some reason Tuesday, she said, “we’ve had an extra large run of paper ballots.”
“It seems more and more people are taking paper ballots,” Days said. “They are kind of bucking the trend. Previously, 15 percent was sufficient. In the future, we may look at 20 to 25 percent.”
Normally, we’d love to take some credit for helping to educate the electorate about the importance of voting on paper ballots over all these years (we live in L.A. now, but were born and raised in St. Louis County, after all), but for this part of the Post’s article concerning a precinct in Florissant, a town that abuts Ferguson, which does lead one to raise an eyebrow…
They’re supposed to have 300 paper ballots on hand, but only had 5?!
Voters in all of the cases were reportedly instructed to either vote on the touch-screen systems, or come back after 1pm when more paper ballots were supposed to have been delivered. That’s a pretty tall inconvenience that reportedly ticked off a number of voters.
And then there is this out of the city of St. Louis which, unlike St. Louis County, uses touch-screen voting systems exclusively, except in emergency cases [* see CORRECTION on this point below]…
A voter at Unity Christ Church on North Skinker Boulevard said anyone who voted in August was showing up on the computer as having already voted Tuesday. They were using paper ballots to get around the glitch.
Why would the computers show voters as already having voted unless the August primary data was not zeroed out of the systems before Tuesday’s general election?
* CORRECTION: A reader who voted in the city of St. Louis, which is a different voting entity from St. Louis County, writes to say my explanation of all touch-screen (except for emergency) voting in the city of St. Louis is inaccurate. Voters there, he said, were indeed given the option to vote on either paper ballot or touch-screen. So my information on that, as based on my previous conversations with the former MO Sec. of State and others, now appears to be out-dated in that regard (which is a good thing!)
The reader says when he went to vote yesterday in the city, he “asked for paper. Then asked what the most popular choice was. She [the poll worker] said paper and then pointed out that there were only two electronic voting machines at the precinct which she said was making for long lines, hence people’s preference for paper. They had about six rows of stations for people to go fill out the paper ballots. A few minutes later, there was a rush as people were getting off of work. My wife arrived as part of that rush shortly after I did. She came straight from work. She too requested paper. When she went to vote, every station was taken. So you had a room full of people voting and two machines. So like I say, I’m not sure where you got the information above, but it certainly wasn’t true in my 63103 precinct.”
I’m scrambling to prepare my radio show for later today, so no time to dig in at the moment for more details or confirmation either way, but hopefully that helps to clarify the process in the city of St. Louis for now. My apologies for the late-night, misleading, and apparently out-of-date statements on that one point.
(Snail mail support to “Brad Friedman, 7095 Hollywood Blvd., #594 Los Angeles, CA 90028” always welcome too!)
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(sarc, it’s all that’s left now)
Man I thought you said they ran out of papers and smoke on 420.
(end sarc)
Here’s $150 go buy me A REAM OF PAPER AND BOX. “We’ll use LINE OF SIGHT as CHAIN OF CUSTODY”
REALITY:
as long as electronics and the resultant broken chain of custody are deployed, there is NO LEGITIMATE GOVERNMENT. And you have no obligation to obey ANY LAW THEY SAY.
However, that does not unbind you from your oath of office or military oath to the US Constitution. Sadly it also covers this illegitimate oath breaking president.
POTUS who wants to use piece of oath breaking DOJ crap like Eric.
IRS can destroy you.
Cops can ROB you.
WAR WAR DEATH
enjoy!
Brad, we’ve been tracking paper ballot use in Saint Louis County for several years. In non-Presidential elections the county has been experiencing 20% paper ballot use consistently. I heard about the county’s plans to only print 15% before the election and personally warned Senator Days that was too few. Her response suggested that only printing 15% was a cost saving effort and that they would be able to print any needed additional ballots on demand.
Thanks, Phillip. Good to hear about that. I’ll touch base with you via email, as I’d like to learn a bit more about it…
Three of my family members worked the elction in San Bernardino County. They all report that a large number of people registered to vote (up 50 50%) were shown to have asked for absentee ballots and had already submitted them to the elections office. Those who complained were allowed to have a provisional ballot, but no local electoral options were on them, benefiting a terrible local mayor.
I cannot believe the electoral results anymore. It’s clear to me that corporatism has corrupted government down to the local level and the Voice of the People has been stilled.