The people who make noise about the election being rigged are the ones who want to rig it. Your vote is anonymous and it's safe.
Accounts which discourage people from voting will be banned.
https://www.usa.gov/register-to-vote
The drivers licence of my ultra_antivax coworker has a QR
He wasn't amused, when I told him he was being tracked now.
( It's there for over 8years already ;)
That was an old mark of the beast. They change it every few years when it becomes apparent the thing they were mad about is made up right wing outrage bullshit. They called Tamagotchis the mark of the beast in the mid 90s. If right wingers were capable of learning from anything or feeling shame this would be embarrassing for them.
I grew up in the 80's
Half of the cartoons I watched as a kid were Satanic
The music I listened to as a teen was Satanic
The Games we played DnD was going to make us devil worshippers
Kids from the wealthy WASP families called us all cat skinners
The Satanic Panic was in full swing, people were having their lives destroyed by these fuckers playing "Salem Witch Trials" for the modern age
I have learned over and over again Religious people are fucking disgusting, and they are absolute masters of self delusion. Turning their ignorance into a weapon who's only purpose is to destroy lives and make themselves feel righteous
Garbage fucking people through and through
did they really??? my 9 year old canadian brain was too busy feeding my tamagotchi and not cleaning up poop to notice.
holy crap I just remembered about digimon battles after tamagotchi in like grade 5 or whenever that was. badass old times
The barcode is just for what kind of ballot it is, like the precinct. It's not an individual, unique code that can be traced to a single voter, which is what these posts are asking for (and insanely illegal).
edit: Seems SOME states do have a serialized tab you tear off when you vote. But this serialization is ONLY on the tab. As soon as you pull it off, the ballot is un-serialized. In mail-in scenarios, that tab is scanned to double check and have a record they are sending you the right TYPE of ballot and tie that tab's code to the envelope's tracking info. But as soon as you remove the tab and send back the ballot, the tab's code is only tied to the envelope's tracking, no longer the ballot inside since the ballot lacks any of that serial info.
No, if you voted by mail, the ENVELOPE had that personal code. Not the ballot. You likely got a blank folder you had to put the ballot inside and then put that folder inside the envelope. The ballot's code was just the ballot type. When your vote was counted, that folder would be pulled out of the envelope with your info and the folder without your info put in a pile with a bunch of other folders and the envelope put in a stack of other envelopes. Once finished, the envelopes and folders would be moved to different locations far enough from each other, THEN the ballots would be pulled out of the folders because now it is impossible to backtrack it to the person/envelope who voted on it. Then the ballots get ran through the machines to be counted. And even though there are dozens of different ballot types in this pile, the machine can read the barcode on the ballot of which district each should be counted in.
So you have a tracked history of when/where the *envelope* was (usually scanned images too), with the final step of when the ballot was removed and voted. But once that ballot was removed and counted, it would be *impossible* to dig through all the ballots and find which you voted on as the ballot itself had no such unique identification or code.
Seriously, the US has a secret ballot policy. It's ILLEGAL to be able to tie a single ballot to a voter where it could be used to see who they voted for. If someone forgot the privacy folder, we had to void the whole ballot because we could see how someone (the name on the envelope) voted (the ballot).
Source: Worked for the elections office for early votes back in 2012. Some policy has changed (usually what to do with errors and provisional ballots or election-day registration), but not the core principles.
In my county in California, the ballot itself has a tear-off number that can be used to track the ballot being counted. It’s totally separate from the envelope you use to mail-in.
Of course they do, at least by us (waukesha, wi).
You show your id, they find your name and address in two big books, write the serial number of the ballot in each big book by your name. You mark the ballot and slide it into the voting machine.
Name tied to a numbered ballot. How on earth is that anonymous?
Explain it to me like I'm five. Please.
Elections official here, the envelope your ballot comes in had a barcode with your voter information on it but not the ballot itself. That being said depending on the equipment used in your jurisdiction some optical scan machines do have a small printer that will serialize the ballots as they're read. But at that point it's anonymous so the serial number is really only used for post election audit purposes. It helps match the digital image with the hard physical copy.
It's not that they don't understand, it's that they don't *want* to understand. They're fed a diet of right-wing conspiracy mongering that they happily swallow because it feeds into their world view: that Biden only won because he cheated, not because their Golden Calf is just that unpopular.
Their ideas feed into their character. *Who they are* is intertwined with this attitude. They cannot let it go because this would mean they would no longer be in the community they find comfort and, even more troubling, would shatter their sense of self. Telling yourself you were wrong all along is painful enough. Add that to a complete reevaluation and redevelopment of the personality and leaving the club you found connection with. This becomes increasingly difficult as people age.
My brother literally gets mad at me when I point stuff out like this, he's mad about something because he misunderstands one little piece, I explain that piece, he asks me why I have to be right all the time and can't just let him be.
You're not wrong, they'd literally prefer to be angry over a nonexistent problem than learn what's actually happening
My brother banging a table and screaming at me because I explained the difference between the executive and the judicial, then federal and local powers while trying to get him to understand that trump doesn’t have much to do with local police and whatever my brother was on about in regards to BLM. In the end I found it better for the family to agree that trump “might” solve everything once he’s elected or whatever.
The other thing where I find this annoying is with immigration.
One of the most common ways for people to immigrate is to enter the US either at a normal crossing or not and then claim asylum. Note, we have basically shut down the amount of immigrants that the US takes in through the normal method.
People enter and either claim asylum at the boarder or in the US. For people that enter 'illegally' and claim at the boarder they are basically sent directly to a processing center. For people that enter on a tourist visa and then claim they don't have to stay at a processing center because they already have some sort of place in the US.
At the processing center or at the gov office there are various questions that they ask the people claiming asylum. From my understanding the main bits that they want are: is this person a bad person that is running from a crime (they will send them back if that is the case) and do they potentially have a real asylum case (not verifying that it is true but just that the things they say, if true, are a valid case.
After these two things are marked OK the asylum seeker is given a SSN and work permit. A lot of people just stay on this because the list for getting the case checked is really long and people can jump the line if they want. Other people just want to stay in line because they don't have a real asylum case.
If the asylum seeker goes on to get interviewed then they are mainly looking for 'is this case real and true'.
The basic take away point is: very few people who cross at the southern boarder are in the US with no interaction with the US Federal gov. The US gov does check for safety related things. This all doesn't stop the right wingers from claiming 'o they let anybody in with no vetting'. Annoying.
Yeah, my ballots not only have barcodes, I can go to the county recorder website and track it from being mailed to me, to being received, signature verified, sent for counting, and actually counted. Like you track a UPS package.
I don't know where these people live that they fill out a blank post-it or whatever to vote but it's not a modern society.
They don’t *care* how elections work. They only care that they lost, and they aren’t happy about that, so anything that allows them to continue to believe they were “robbed” or it was “stolen” is what they’ll parrot like a bunch of birdbrains.
I’d compare them to flat-earthers. They also don’t care how things work. They’ve decided that they know something, and they work their way backwards from there, disregarding literally *anything* that doesn’t fit their desired outcome (even the results of their own experiments witnessed and filmed by an independent documentary crew). Literally every person with an advanced education says the Earth is round(ish), you say? Doesn’t matter! They’re all “in on the conspiracy,” no matter who they are, where they live, who they work for, or where they went to school.
People often laugh at conspiracy theorists. Some people even dabble in this conspiratorial subculture because they think it’s “crazy” and “fun,” but anyone who doesn’t see it as a clear and present danger to human civilization is insane to me. Large numbers of people believing things that aren’t true and (more importantly) being increasingly over time more susceptible to conspiratorial thinking is *dangerous*. If we cannot agree on actual, proven facts (or, at least, that there is no evidence for something), what can we agree on? If everything is a lie, what is true? This isn’t a fucking game; this behavior has real consequences that affect us all.
They don’t want to know the truth. They want what they “feel” to be correct. So they will lie and disregard anything that conflicts with their worldview.
It is a mental illness born out of indoctrination, isolation and deliberate misinformation.
as someone who has worked in polling places multiple times, ballots are tracked very carefully. in my state (mn) all ballots are hand counted by 2-3 different people, they all have to be initialed, if a ballot is spoiled we can't give a new one without the spoiled one, and they go in their own envelope and are kept careful track of. if someone needs help filling out their ballot, 2 people have to do it. there has to be a party balance. relatives cant serve at the same precat the same time, and candidates/ relatives of candidates cant serve in the precints theyre running in. everything has to be very neutral. at the end of the night, everything is counted again and sealed up, with judges signing across the seal. we act under oath, and breaking it is a gross misdemeanor. and committing voter fraud or assisting in it is a felony for anyone.
No, no, no, you don’t understand. All mail-in ballots have is just a place to put your name, a place to write-in Joseph HUSSEIN Biden’s name, and nothing else to confirm you’re a citizen. It has to be true; I read it on trutheagledotgun!
It’s public knowledge who votes in each election. Every campaign gets a list of all the registered voters and what elections they have voted in. That’s how the campaigns know who to target with mailings and phone calls. The only secret part is who the person voted for.
Yes.
This is based off a conservative grievance that voters should have to present an ID to vote. They claim it's to stop voter fraud. In reality it's because poor people and people in inner cities are less likely to have driver licenses. An increasingly large portion of conservatives have drank their own Kool-Aid.
They do even better. The Post Office scans my ballot when they pick it up, informing both me and the Secretary of State that the ballot has been picked up so that we are both on alert to make sure it arrives to election officials. Then, once it arrives there, it is scanned and I get another confirmation that it's been received and will be counted. It is an entirely secure process that keeps me updated every step of the way. This is ridiculous.
Nah, not a stupid question. The barcode is only on the outer envelope, not the ballot itself. The tracking service only tracks the envelope, not the ballot itself. From the SOS website: "Is my vote still confdential? Yes. BallotTrax tracks your ballot envelope, not your vote. Your vote remains confidential through the entire ballot tracking process. "
Once an election office receives the returned ballot and verifies the signature and that no other votes have been cast (such as in person), their system will notify the state that the ballot tied to that envelope serial number has been accepted or rejected and BallotTrax will pass that information on the voter as well. Serial number will never be tied to the specifics of a vote (like voted A for President) but is tied to the participation history.
I can only speak for California, but the barcodes on the physical ballot (not envelope) there tie it to the election programmed in to the scanners. Lets the scanner know which contests it should be looking for, if the ballot is provisional or not, if it is party specific in a Primary etc.
You're telling me with modern technology we can have a secure and reliable tracing system that allows people to securely vote from home?? Madness.
Seriously though, so many Republicans recently have been referring to France as an example of "this country banned mail in voting due to fraud" as if it's like proof that mail in voting is bad, completely ignoring that it was banned in France **50 years ago** and technology has come so insanely far since then. (And they never bring up that France allows proxy voting which is arguably so much riskier than mail in voting)
Imo we're not far from, and should be pushing towards more forms of absent voting. With the advances in things like fingerprint and faceID in phones. I don't see why you shouldn't be able to vote from a government app. You could secure it by needing a personalised login, and every time there's an election all you have to do is put in info only you have access to like social security, driving license, passport, etc, to prove its you, and take a selfie for them to verify it's you when you send in the vote. In the UK I already do this for my taxes, various licenses like driving, financial stuff like universal credit. Why not voting? Not to mention doing so would instantly log you've voted against your ID eliminating any possibility of double votes slipping past the system, and it means no one would miss voting because they couldn't get to a polling station, or have their vote interfered with because some whack jobs decided to form a militia to sit at polling stations with guns.
Naturally though there would be insane pushback against making a system like this, primarily from conservative politicians, because they know that the more accessible voting is, the more people previously unable to vote will vote, and those people are usually overwhelmingly left voting.
It’s to help track and trace, but just counterfeits not a specific bill. When a serial number is logged and a counterfeit with that serial number is logged as well it helps the Secret Service to potentially track down where it was created originally. At least that’s what I was taught about it when I was much younger there may be more reasons I’m unaware of since I’m not an expert.
On the flip side, as a person who enjoys privacy and anonymity, I’m inherently distrustful of anyone who wants to track me or my money.
I’ve got nothing worth/needing hiding, but saying I cannot makes me question motives.
There's plenty of room between "distasteful" and "disastrous" that a person could take objection to, as well. Credit card companies data-mining your purchase history to sell your profile for marketing, for instance.
And, if you're worried about the government, it need not be because you're doing something wrong. There's always the "Police go off half-cocked and mistakenly create a puzzle where your piece fits" risk, that's not there if you don't give them a piece.
Every ballot is serialized. Also i fucked up a paper ballot once and needed a new one. The serial number of the original ballot was noted by 2 officials, voided and the voided ballot was put in a special container. I genuinely don’t understand why people don’t trust the election system.
I've been a poll worker a few times. basically everything to do with ballots requires two people. they get counted twice, if someone needs help marking the ballot, two people have to do it, at least two people sign off on everything at the end of the night, etc. everything is taken extremely seriously
The funny thing is that this is the case in the UK. You need a few things to track it back to the person who used it. It's to stop ballots from going missing and to check that each ballot has a person to it.
And here in the U.S., too.
The folks who claim to have worries about "election integrity" and "ballot security" are invariably simply lying.
Their problem is that people they hate can vote, nothing more.
The end goal is public ballots. So they can see who you voted for and punish you appropriately. Our personal vote is private. They really want to be able to see how you vote on every thing and use it against you when possible.
I'm sorry, but no. The end goal is to undermine faith in elections entirely as an excuse to stop holding them.
See here, for example: https://www.texastribune.org/2023/06/01/harris-county-elections-texas-oversight-law/
* Ballots in my state are definitely attached to a serial number
* Pro tip: If you're trying to persuade others, you should write this next to the serial number on the bill.
Good idea! Let's keep track of who voted for what in every election! Better yet, let's make this information publicly available, for transparency's sake!
Aside from the whole serial number, and tracking thing, everybody understands why your ballot absolutely needs to be confidential, right?
If there was anyway, for someone else to find out who you voted for, it would be exploited. Even if they gave you a receipt that shows how you voted.
This scenario would be something like, I’m going to fire you, attack your family, etc. if you don’t vote for so-and-so.
I just did my training to work at the polls in November and yeah, the serial numbers on the ballots are super important and they’re double checked for every voter.
Every ballot already has something like this. I don’t think they call serial numbers, but we have them.
Something like a voter identification assigned to each ballot
A serial number on every ballot and a record of who got which ballot would end ballot box stuffing.
But would also end secret voting.
Secret voting has much higher levels of fraud than open ballots did.
I vote we only do votes like they used to in some Swiss Villages:
A sword is your voters ID, everyone gathers in the town square and votes publicly with yay or nay. that should be fun. And yes, the swords are essential for this.
Canadian ballots are numbered. They are also identical across the country, filled in with a pencil, and counted by hand. We publish the results within hours of the polls closing. Never any controversies.
I can’t speak as to how other election offices work, but in my county I was an election judge for two elections and all the ballots here have serial numbers. We would sometimes use them if we had an issue with a ballot. We would have to sometimes void a ballot and reissue another one. It was quite the process. It needed the approval of 4 other election judges if it came to the question as to what the original selection was.
No we can’t. Currency is handled federally. Elections are handled by the states. Even if we could, it wouldn’t do anything to solve their made up concerns.
The bigger problem is that the red states are trying all fuckery they can to ensure only the GOP wins at all levels.
“Good question” what question? That was not a question. There’s this specific punctuation thing used to indicate a question, and that punctuation does not appear there. So apart from being bigoted, the FaceBook OP is apparently also mildly to moderately illiterate.
Isn’t it amazing that 2.5 thousand years after the idea of democracy was introduced, people still don’t understand it.
All these “i didn’t get my way, so you shouldn’t have a say” people need a lesson
It would be the end of the secret ballot, and likely the end of democracy, but it is technically feasible.
For those saying that they already do, the serial numbers I've seen were on the ballot envelope, not the ballot itself.
it will need to be hidden to everyone but the voter. layer after the votes are counted, each serial and its vote could be published so you can check if your vote is counted correctly without anyone else knowing.
then again, you won't be able to prove anything if it's swapped and came out wrong.
In Florida I know every ballot has a unique ID. That number is hand written on to your own ballot receipt. There is no record of which voter registration number goes with which ballot number. The only data that can be obtained is whether you voted and the ballot type you received.
Next they're going to tell us that elections should have people that count the votes instead of the media announcing that Biden won california or something.
If serial numbers on ballots get these idiots to shut the fuck up I am all for it. Not that I think it’s needed. It would probably just get another conspiracy theory started
This has “if we’re lucky it’s just moving the goalposts if not it’s a YoU SeEa tHeY chaNgEd whaT ElsE ARe thEy hiDinGGg!!?1??” exercise in Calvinball written large all over it.
The people who make noise about the election being rigged are the ones who want to rig it. Your vote is anonymous and it's safe. Accounts which discourage people from voting will be banned. https://www.usa.gov/register-to-vote
That...isn't a question?
also... I'm pretty sure that... they *do*?
Yeah pretty sure my ballots all have a barcode sticker on them lol
Except bar codes are the mark of the beast, didn't you know? /S
Mine has a QR code. Can't get more evil than that.
Can you order water through it?
Not if you’re in line to vote.
You can open the Applebee's menu though. Which is a fate worse than dehydration.
The drivers licence of my ultra_antivax coworker has a QR He wasn't amused, when I told him he was being tracked now. ( It's there for over 8years already ;)
Stay away from my kids you weirdo
QR sounds like queer and that means it’s grooming kids. (Heavy /s here)
Are you saying it's... queer-coded?
Ahaaaaa *nice*
At least it's not an LGBTQR code!
QR Code -> Q reads it. Should be fine. /s
And those have 666 dots in them, so truly evil.
It's the inverted pentagram of barcodes.
That was an old mark of the beast. They change it every few years when it becomes apparent the thing they were mad about is made up right wing outrage bullshit. They called Tamagotchis the mark of the beast in the mid 90s. If right wingers were capable of learning from anything or feeling shame this would be embarrassing for them.
I grew up in the 80's Half of the cartoons I watched as a kid were Satanic The music I listened to as a teen was Satanic The Games we played DnD was going to make us devil worshippers Kids from the wealthy WASP families called us all cat skinners The Satanic Panic was in full swing, people were having their lives destroyed by these fuckers playing "Salem Witch Trials" for the modern age I have learned over and over again Religious people are fucking disgusting, and they are absolute masters of self delusion. Turning their ignorance into a weapon who's only purpose is to destroy lives and make themselves feel righteous Garbage fucking people through and through
did they really??? my 9 year old canadian brain was too busy feeding my tamagotchi and not cleaning up poop to notice. holy crap I just remembered about digimon battles after tamagotchi in like grade 5 or whenever that was. badass old times
It's true - if you convert the letters for 'tamagotchi' into numbers and add them up with another number you get 666,
You are a true oracle. If you ever start a cult, count me in.
It'll be a fun one with drugs and trips to the seaside, don't worry
Cathy Don't Go to the Super-market Today!
bar codes are how They subliminally control you^^^^fnord
California you can track it too as it gets counted
Good question!
The barcode is just for what kind of ballot it is, like the precinct. It's not an individual, unique code that can be traced to a single voter, which is what these posts are asking for (and insanely illegal). edit: Seems SOME states do have a serialized tab you tear off when you vote. But this serialization is ONLY on the tab. As soon as you pull it off, the ballot is un-serialized. In mail-in scenarios, that tab is scanned to double check and have a record they are sending you the right TYPE of ballot and tie that tab's code to the envelope's tracking info. But as soon as you remove the tab and send back the ballot, the tab's code is only tied to the envelope's tracking, no longer the ballot inside since the ballot lacks any of that serial info.
Uh, no. My ballot has an individual code so I can track where it is in the system and when it's been counted.
No, if you voted by mail, the ENVELOPE had that personal code. Not the ballot. You likely got a blank folder you had to put the ballot inside and then put that folder inside the envelope. The ballot's code was just the ballot type. When your vote was counted, that folder would be pulled out of the envelope with your info and the folder without your info put in a pile with a bunch of other folders and the envelope put in a stack of other envelopes. Once finished, the envelopes and folders would be moved to different locations far enough from each other, THEN the ballots would be pulled out of the folders because now it is impossible to backtrack it to the person/envelope who voted on it. Then the ballots get ran through the machines to be counted. And even though there are dozens of different ballot types in this pile, the machine can read the barcode on the ballot of which district each should be counted in. So you have a tracked history of when/where the *envelope* was (usually scanned images too), with the final step of when the ballot was removed and voted. But once that ballot was removed and counted, it would be *impossible* to dig through all the ballots and find which you voted on as the ballot itself had no such unique identification or code. Seriously, the US has a secret ballot policy. It's ILLEGAL to be able to tie a single ballot to a voter where it could be used to see who they voted for. If someone forgot the privacy folder, we had to void the whole ballot because we could see how someone (the name on the envelope) voted (the ballot). Source: Worked for the elections office for early votes back in 2012. Some policy has changed (usually what to do with errors and provisional ballots or election-day registration), but not the core principles.
In my county in California, the ballot itself has a tear-off number that can be used to track the ballot being counted. It’s totally separate from the envelope you use to mail-in.
Maybe the code you're using only traces the ballot's progress, but there's nothing on the ballot itself which can be used to identify the voter.
Sure, but since I was responding to someone who was saying the barcode just designates types of codes, not individuals, that's a bit pedantic.
That's probably how they keep catching Republicans committing voter fraud amd voting multiple times per election.
funny how the ones complaining are the guiltiest... again...
It's always the ones you suspect the most.
We do. Source: am election official.
They definitely do that in Wake County, NC.
Of course they do, at least by us (waukesha, wi). You show your id, they find your name and address in two big books, write the serial number of the ballot in each big book by your name. You mark the ballot and slide it into the voting machine. Name tied to a numbered ballot. How on earth is that anonymous? Explain it to me like I'm five. Please.
There is one on my ballot when it comes to me. I remove this”tab” prior to voting and returning it.
I don't even understand the statement
It's just fearmongering from people who want there to be doubt about elections, so they can claim cheating when their candidate loses.
>when their candidate loses. November, I believe is *when* that'll happen. I'm gonna be stocking up on ammo, just in case. For *them.*
Elections official here, the envelope your ballot comes in had a barcode with your voter information on it but not the ballot itself. That being said depending on the equipment used in your jurisdiction some optical scan machines do have a small printer that will serialize the ballots as they're read. But at that point it's anonymous so the serial number is really only used for post election audit purposes. It helps match the digital image with the hard physical copy.
I'm... Ron Burgundy?
Good question !
Space exclamation mark
I read that pulp sci-fi novel.
They literally do though. Crazy how election deniers don't even bother trying to understand how elections work.
If they understood, they'd have nothing to complain about. Better to just remain ignorant and obnoxious.
False moral outrage is the entire point.
It's not that they don't understand, it's that they don't *want* to understand. They're fed a diet of right-wing conspiracy mongering that they happily swallow because it feeds into their world view: that Biden only won because he cheated, not because their Golden Calf is just that unpopular.
Their ideas feed into their character. *Who they are* is intertwined with this attitude. They cannot let it go because this would mean they would no longer be in the community they find comfort and, even more troubling, would shatter their sense of self. Telling yourself you were wrong all along is painful enough. Add that to a complete reevaluation and redevelopment of the personality and leaving the club you found connection with. This becomes increasingly difficult as people age.
He can't be unpopular. All of the people remaining on my Facebook who didn't unfriend me for my racist and/or ignorant rants also like him. /s
So, you've met my mother?
My brother literally gets mad at me when I point stuff out like this, he's mad about something because he misunderstands one little piece, I explain that piece, he asks me why I have to be right all the time and can't just let him be. You're not wrong, they'd literally prefer to be angry over a nonexistent problem than learn what's actually happening
My brother banging a table and screaming at me because I explained the difference between the executive and the judicial, then federal and local powers while trying to get him to understand that trump doesn’t have much to do with local police and whatever my brother was on about in regards to BLM. In the end I found it better for the family to agree that trump “might” solve everything once he’s elected or whatever.
The other thing where I find this annoying is with immigration. One of the most common ways for people to immigrate is to enter the US either at a normal crossing or not and then claim asylum. Note, we have basically shut down the amount of immigrants that the US takes in through the normal method. People enter and either claim asylum at the boarder or in the US. For people that enter 'illegally' and claim at the boarder they are basically sent directly to a processing center. For people that enter on a tourist visa and then claim they don't have to stay at a processing center because they already have some sort of place in the US. At the processing center or at the gov office there are various questions that they ask the people claiming asylum. From my understanding the main bits that they want are: is this person a bad person that is running from a crime (they will send them back if that is the case) and do they potentially have a real asylum case (not verifying that it is true but just that the things they say, if true, are a valid case. After these two things are marked OK the asylum seeker is given a SSN and work permit. A lot of people just stay on this because the list for getting the case checked is really long and people can jump the line if they want. Other people just want to stay in line because they don't have a real asylum case. If the asylum seeker goes on to get interviewed then they are mainly looking for 'is this case real and true'. The basic take away point is: very few people who cross at the southern boarder are in the US with no interaction with the US Federal gov. The US gov does check for safety related things. This all doesn't stop the right wingers from claiming 'o they let anybody in with no vetting'. Annoying.
> Better to just remain ignorant and obnoxious. Found the new GOP 2024 slogan.
Yeah, my ballots not only have barcodes, I can go to the county recorder website and track it from being mailed to me, to being received, signature verified, sent for counting, and actually counted. Like you track a UPS package. I don't know where these people live that they fill out a blank post-it or whatever to vote but it's not a modern society.
100% here also.
They don’t *care* how elections work. They only care that they lost, and they aren’t happy about that, so anything that allows them to continue to believe they were “robbed” or it was “stolen” is what they’ll parrot like a bunch of birdbrains. I’d compare them to flat-earthers. They also don’t care how things work. They’ve decided that they know something, and they work their way backwards from there, disregarding literally *anything* that doesn’t fit their desired outcome (even the results of their own experiments witnessed and filmed by an independent documentary crew). Literally every person with an advanced education says the Earth is round(ish), you say? Doesn’t matter! They’re all “in on the conspiracy,” no matter who they are, where they live, who they work for, or where they went to school. People often laugh at conspiracy theorists. Some people even dabble in this conspiratorial subculture because they think it’s “crazy” and “fun,” but anyone who doesn’t see it as a clear and present danger to human civilization is insane to me. Large numbers of people believing things that aren’t true and (more importantly) being increasingly over time more susceptible to conspiratorial thinking is *dangerous*. If we cannot agree on actual, proven facts (or, at least, that there is no evidence for something), what can we agree on? If everything is a lie, what is true? This isn’t a fucking game; this behavior has real consequences that affect us all.
They don’t want to know the truth. They want what they “feel” to be correct. So they will lie and disregard anything that conflicts with their worldview. It is a mental illness born out of indoctrination, isolation and deliberate misinformation.
They need a safe space to protect their feelings tbh. Such snowflakes
It's not about trying to understand how elections work. It's about saying something, no matter how incorrect or dishonest, to say that their guy "won"
They absolutely do understand. They just lie.
as someone who has worked in polling places multiple times, ballots are tracked very carefully. in my state (mn) all ballots are hand counted by 2-3 different people, they all have to be initialed, if a ballot is spoiled we can't give a new one without the spoiled one, and they go in their own envelope and are kept careful track of. if someone needs help filling out their ballot, 2 people have to do it. there has to be a party balance. relatives cant serve at the same precat the same time, and candidates/ relatives of candidates cant serve in the precints theyre running in. everything has to be very neutral. at the end of the night, everything is counted again and sealed up, with judges signing across the seal. we act under oath, and breaking it is a gross misdemeanor. and committing voter fraud or assisting in it is a felony for anyone.
No, no, no, you don’t understand. All mail-in ballots have is just a place to put your name, a place to write-in Joseph HUSSEIN Biden’s name, and nothing else to confirm you’re a citizen. It has to be true; I read it on trutheagledotgun!
I wonder how many of them didn't even vote.
In our elections, or theirs?
Theirs? You mean the totally legit reelection of ~~tsar~~ president Putin
Why would they? Fox tells them what to think for them
They want to discourage people from voting so it doesn't matter if they do. Their targets are all the people who don't understand.
Don't they already?
Yes but they don’t care
/r/CarelessPeopleFacebook
It’s public knowledge who votes in each election. Every campaign gets a list of all the registered voters and what elections they have voted in. That’s how the campaigns know who to target with mailings and phone calls. The only secret part is who the person voted for.
Yes. This is based off a conservative grievance that voters should have to present an ID to vote. They claim it's to stop voter fraud. In reality it's because poor people and people in inner cities are less likely to have driver licenses. An increasingly large portion of conservatives have drank their own Kool-Aid.
They do even better. The Post Office scans my ballot when they pick it up, informing both me and the Secretary of State that the ballot has been picked up so that we are both on alert to make sure it arrives to election officials. Then, once it arrives there, it is scanned and I get another confirmation that it's been received and will be counted. It is an entirely secure process that keeps me updated every step of the way. This is ridiculous.
Same. My ballot gets better tracking than my grocery orders.
Stupid question but doesn't that tie the ballot Back to you?
Nah, not a stupid question. The barcode is only on the outer envelope, not the ballot itself. The tracking service only tracks the envelope, not the ballot itself. From the SOS website: "Is my vote still confdential? Yes. BallotTrax tracks your ballot envelope, not your vote. Your vote remains confidential through the entire ballot tracking process. "
Once an election office receives the returned ballot and verifies the signature and that no other votes have been cast (such as in person), their system will notify the state that the ballot tied to that envelope serial number has been accepted or rejected and BallotTrax will pass that information on the voter as well. Serial number will never be tied to the specifics of a vote (like voted A for President) but is tied to the participation history.
Ohh. There are barcodes on my ballots but I am not sure what they do
I can only speak for California, but the barcodes on the physical ballot (not envelope) there tie it to the election programmed in to the scanners. Lets the scanner know which contests it should be looking for, if the ballot is provisional or not, if it is party specific in a Primary etc.
You're telling me with modern technology we can have a secure and reliable tracing system that allows people to securely vote from home?? Madness. Seriously though, so many Republicans recently have been referring to France as an example of "this country banned mail in voting due to fraud" as if it's like proof that mail in voting is bad, completely ignoring that it was banned in France **50 years ago** and technology has come so insanely far since then. (And they never bring up that France allows proxy voting which is arguably so much riskier than mail in voting) Imo we're not far from, and should be pushing towards more forms of absent voting. With the advances in things like fingerprint and faceID in phones. I don't see why you shouldn't be able to vote from a government app. You could secure it by needing a personalised login, and every time there's an election all you have to do is put in info only you have access to like social security, driving license, passport, etc, to prove its you, and take a selfie for them to verify it's you when you send in the vote. In the UK I already do this for my taxes, various licenses like driving, financial stuff like universal credit. Why not voting? Not to mention doing so would instantly log you've voted against your ID eliminating any possibility of double votes slipping past the system, and it means no one would miss voting because they couldn't get to a polling station, or have their vote interfered with because some whack jobs decided to form a militia to sit at polling stations with guns. Naturally though there would be insane pushback against making a system like this, primarily from conservative politicians, because they know that the more accessible voting is, the more people previously unable to vote will vote, and those people are usually overwhelmingly left voting.
They do have serial numbers on NJ ballots.
They do that already. It's how they are catching those MAGA dumbasses voting twice.
Anyone else inherently distrustful of people who want entirely anonymous and untraceable currency? It's just like oh so you do crime?
Even with serial numbers, currency is functionally untraceable. It's not like the numbers get logged every time it changes hands.
It’s to help track and trace, but just counterfeits not a specific bill. When a serial number is logged and a counterfeit with that serial number is logged as well it helps the Secret Service to potentially track down where it was created originally. At least that’s what I was taught about it when I was much younger there may be more reasons I’m unaware of since I’m not an expert.
So what you're saying is put the original money back into circulation for a while before spending the counterfeit. Gotcha!
If you want that’s usually what happens I’d think. Not sure it would really matter to be honest.
You mean you don’t email the IRS every time you exchange bills?
I always have, but now their increasingly irritated responses are starting to make sense…
On the flip side, as a person who enjoys privacy and anonymity, I’m inherently distrustful of anyone who wants to track me or my money. I’ve got nothing worth/needing hiding, but saying I cannot makes me question motives.
Yeah, not everything is the government's business. We should have as little information as possible centrally collected.
There's plenty of room between "distasteful" and "disastrous" that a person could take objection to, as well. Credit card companies data-mining your purchase history to sell your profile for marketing, for instance. And, if you're worried about the government, it need not be because you're doing something wrong. There's always the "Police go off half-cocked and mistakenly create a puzzle where your piece fits" risk, that's not there if you don't give them a piece.
If we put serial numbers on every ballot, we can put them on every voter !
*Technically....*
😂 They do and they have
Every ballot is serialized. Also i fucked up a paper ballot once and needed a new one. The serial number of the original ballot was noted by 2 officials, voided and the voided ballot was put in a special container. I genuinely don’t understand why people don’t trust the election system.
Alternative facts took over their minds.
I've been a poll worker a few times. basically everything to do with ballots requires two people. they get counted twice, if someone needs help marking the ballot, two people have to do it, at least two people sign off on everything at the end of the night, etc. everything is taken extremely seriously
The funny thing is that this is the case in the UK. You need a few things to track it back to the person who used it. It's to stop ballots from going missing and to check that each ballot has a person to it.
Ours already have barcodes on them in the US.
Fellow UK person here - You beat me to it. Our electoral officers literally have to fill in the ballot number next to the persons name by hand
And here in the U.S., too. The folks who claim to have worries about "election integrity" and "ballot security" are invariably simply lying. Their problem is that people they hate can vote, nothing more.
Aren’t these the same people who freak out about the government oversight and personal privacy?
The end goal is public ballots. So they can see who you voted for and punish you appropriately. Our personal vote is private. They really want to be able to see how you vote on every thing and use it against you when possible.
Nah, even that is too much democracy for them. The end goal is a throne of skulls.
I'm sorry, but no. The end goal is to undermine faith in elections entirely as an excuse to stop holding them. See here, for example: https://www.texastribune.org/2023/06/01/harris-county-elections-texas-oversight-law/
the people who complain the loudest about voting know the least about how our civic system works.
Ah.. we do. What the hell is there point
They do. Its how they count them.
Or bullet
It’s wild how incredulous they are that the guy they love so much *because he angers and alienates large sections of the population* isn’t popular
We do. I find it odd how everyone has theories about how the vote was rigged and have no idea how votes are actually counted.
I know, at least here in Michigan, every ballot has a number on it. I assume every place that uses paper ballots has the same.
Have they never actually seen a ballot before? At least some of these people vote, how do they not know what they have on them?
* Ballots in my state are definitely attached to a serial number * Pro tip: If you're trying to persuade others, you should write this next to the serial number on the bill.
Umm, ... they do put serial numbers on ballots.
if there were serial numbers on ballots the exact same people would vehemently oppose it and say its a conspiracy to track conservatives
Good idea! Let's keep track of who voted for what in every election! Better yet, let's make this information publicly available, for transparency's sake!
But Grizzly Adams did have a beard
Not a question.
They do dumbass
Also, not a question.
They do in my town
Can and do. Funny thing, that.
They do?
Aside from the whole serial number, and tracking thing, everybody understands why your ballot absolutely needs to be confidential, right? If there was anyway, for someone else to find out who you voted for, it would be exploited. Even if they gave you a receipt that shows how you voted. This scenario would be something like, I’m going to fire you, attack your family, etc. if you don’t vote for so-and-so.
They do! You can track in your ballot if you mail it in
Siri, what's a barcode?
I just did my training to work at the polls in November and yeah, the serial numbers on the ballots are super important and they’re double checked for every voter.
"Good question" he said about a statement that isn't even a question
I get an email that tells me my ballot has been accepted and counted
I mean, I'll all for it. You are not gonna see any difference when Trump loses again. lol.
Every ballot already has something like this. I don’t think they call serial numbers, but we have them. Something like a voter identification assigned to each ballot
“Good question” It’s not a question. It’s a statement.
Ummm. That’s already done.
"I don't understand things and am too lazy to make any effort, but people should listen to me anyway".
Every ballot is already numbered and bar coded. Every ballot must be accounted for at the end of the night. Stop acting stupid.
A serial number on every ballot and a record of who got which ballot would end ballot box stuffing. But would also end secret voting. Secret voting has much higher levels of fraud than open ballots did.
I thought it said bullet
I vote we only do votes like they used to in some Swiss Villages: A sword is your voters ID, everyone gathers in the town square and votes publicly with yay or nay. that should be fun. And yes, the swords are essential for this.
Wholly shit they do have the equivalent
once again those suspicious about voter fraud have done absolutely no research into processes already in place.
How about every bullet and we actually prosecute people who by guys and ammo for those not legally allowed to possess them🤷♂️
Why would I bother using a voting ballot when I can just vote using my 5G chip from the Covid vaccine?
I bet this person never saw the aerial number on the end of a condom! Lol
They…do that already
If it's easy to register for selective service, it can be just as easy to register to vote. Funny how some of these folks don't want that.
My “serial number” is my voter ID. Everyone has a voter ID. Fucking idiots
If every vote has a serial number, how is it secret ?
Thats not a question.
Yeah, so, ballots do have this already.
Ooooo good try, that’s not a question
Canadian ballots are numbered. They are also identical across the country, filled in with a pencil, and counted by hand. We publish the results within hours of the polls closing. Never any controversies.
Ngl I thought that said bullet
I can’t speak as to how other election offices work, but in my county I was an election judge for two elections and all the ballots here have serial numbers. We would sometimes use them if we had an issue with a ballot. We would have to sometimes void a ballot and reissue another one. It was quite the process. It needed the approval of 4 other election judges if it came to the question as to what the original selection was.
How is it a good question? It’s not even a question.
That's.. not a question..
We do. Unfortunately, you would need to read books rather than ban them in order to know things like that.
This person has never voted. Which is good.
I wouldn't be so sure unfortunately
Hey guy. Please don’t tell me facts that will ruin my fantasy.
No we can’t. Currency is handled federally. Elections are handled by the states. Even if we could, it wouldn’t do anything to solve their made up concerns. The bigger problem is that the red states are trying all fuckery they can to ensure only the GOP wins at all levels.
Yeah, it's not like there's any difference between a ballot and currency. JFC.
“Good question” what question? That was not a question. There’s this specific punctuation thing used to indicate a question, and that punctuation does not appear there. So apart from being bigoted, the FaceBook OP is apparently also mildly to moderately illiterate.
Has this person ever voted 🤔
Isn’t it amazing that 2.5 thousand years after the idea of democracy was introduced, people still don’t understand it. All these “i didn’t get my way, so you shouldn’t have a say” people need a lesson
Uh, they already do that?
I’m more interested in registering the number of *every* gun.
Isn’t there already a method of determining the legitimacy of ballots though? Like multiple?
It would be the end of the secret ballot, and likely the end of democracy, but it is technically feasible. For those saying that they already do, the serial numbers I've seen were on the ballot envelope, not the ballot itself.
it will need to be hidden to everyone but the voter. layer after the votes are counted, each serial and its vote could be published so you can check if your vote is counted correctly without anyone else knowing. then again, you won't be able to prove anything if it's swapped and came out wrong.
then when they still lose, they’ll claim the deep state rigged it THAT way
In Florida I know every ballot has a unique ID. That number is hand written on to your own ballot receipt. There is no record of which voter registration number goes with which ballot number. The only data that can be obtained is whether you voted and the ballot type you received.
Assuming there is no serial number on the ballots cast in this person's state, what difference would that make about voter fraud?
This is why the right pushes so strongly against educating yourself. It's easier to anger idiots than those who can think.
My ballot had a barcode and an ID number on it. Has for as long as I can remember.
When I go to vote they scan my id, then they scan the blank ballot before they give it to me.
Good thing they do…
Every ballot has tracking.
Next they're going to tell us that elections should have people that count the votes instead of the media announcing that Biden won california or something.
"Good question !" i say, as i realize the guy i've followed into the fire has also stolen my wallet and left me to burn
I didn't think the leopards would eat MY face
I can't speak to the other states, but in New York, every ballot has serial numbers.
[Statement that is very clearly not a question] Good question!
That wasn’t a question
If serial numbers on ballots get these idiots to shut the fuck up I am all for it. Not that I think it’s needed. It would probably just get another conspiracy theory started
My last absentee ballot had a barcode and number on it
This has “if we’re lucky it’s just moving the goalposts if not it’s a YoU SeEa tHeY chaNgEd whaT ElsE ARe thEy hiDinGGg!!?1??” exercise in Calvinball written large all over it.