Blogs Aug 4, 2012 at 8:03 am

Comments

1
Thank you. I still get excited about voting after almost a half century after my first vote.
2
"Don't have a stamp handy."

Good lord. People have died for the right to vote, and you are peeved because you "don't have a stamp handy."

I think it is you who misses the point, dear one.
3
You're still a dick, and a partisan hack.
4
I see nothing wrong with your experiment. I too have voted in every election since I was 18, it is a privilege. Unfortunately I believe that 99% of the non voters do not do so for lack of a stamp...and I loathe their reasons.
5
I can sympathize with Goldy a little. Who uses stamps any more? I also pay most of my bills and do most correspondence electronically. I maybe use real postal mail with my own stamps maybe 4 times a year (two of which are my primary and final election ballots).

Still, stamps aren't that hard to come by. Lots of places sell them. You don't even need to go to a post office to buy them any more.
6
Stamps are available at most grocery stores. You know, where you buy food, which most people still consume.
7
So, you do know that for hundreds of years there was no voting by mail, right? That you had to get to the polling place with an expenditure of energy and time and resources? That there has never ever been "truly free" elections?

It is stuff like this that leads me to despair of our future in this country. The sense of entitlement and unwillingness to sacrifice for our democracy is going to be our ruin.

This is a pet peeve of mine. We are all so fricking quick to make it someone else's responsibility while we get "ours." Our tax cut. Our benefits. Our vote should be paid for "them."

Just .... stop it. Please. All of you. I realize it is the human condition, because I hear some variation on this from both Republicans and Democrats, just on different topics.
8
So Goldensteinemberg successfully jewed the post office. Luckily he and his entitlement cohorts won't get to do the same to taxpayers with an income tax no matter who wins.
9
I use stamps, and I pay all my bills with paper forms, and I insist that my bank, and all my creditors, return my paper checks, or paper copies of them, and I think that all you stupid lazy hipsters who have gone paperless and think you're some kind of smug cutting edge fucks are going to be in for a big surprise one day when all your money, or all record of your payments, disappears electronically and you have no way to prove that you ever had it, or that you paid for something.

I am 100 percent confident that this will happen at least once to some of you. But it sure as shit will not happen to me.

10
@9 Unless your fucking house goes up like a roman candle with all that fucking paper in it. Then where will you be?
11
there are 2 more seattle drop box locations you didn't mention..from the king county elections page
' Ballot drop boxes are also located at accessible voting centers for voters to securely return their mail ballot, without the cost of postage.' in addition to the drop boxes you mentioned there is also one at north seattle community college and union station on jackson in the inetrnational district. . when i want to get my miss jane pittman on, i go and old school vote there.
12
I think the experiment has merit, but given that you have the resources to afford a stamp, I'd appreciate it if you were (ceremoniously?) to obtain and destroy a stamp, lest you appear to have stolen 45 cents.
13
Please use stamps and support the USPS.
14
If we voted online, every library would be a polling station. If a contract to implement this was handled correctly, it could be done very securely and relatively cheaply.
15
I think it's stupid there are only a couple of drop boxes to serve everyone in Seattle. How hard can it be to borrow a drop box from the post office or something? Hell, I'd volunteer to drive it to wherever they count it.
16
I don't trust vote by mail. I prefer to hand drop in the ballot box, myself. Did you know that the receipt of your ballot doesn't tell you whether or not they counted it? Re stamps: I still pay bills and write letters by good old fashioned U.S.P.S. where nobody knows your business like every hacker on the internet, including the C.I.A., the F.B.I., the corporate owned politicians - who, by the way, make it very understandable why people DO miss elections. If you bother to vote, with the elections as bought as they are, you might as well vote for someone you really like, and if they're on the ballot, write them in. THEN ask the auditor if they counted your ballot.
17
@2: No, people died for the right to vote, to make it easier/possible to vote. We walked uphill to school both ways with the hope that, in doing so, someday our children wouldn't have to!
18
A stamp is a poll tax! It probably isn't an issue for any of us, but it can be for the poor and elderly.

I would not mind paying a $1 a year tax to pay for postage prepaid envelopes to be included.
19
I mailed my ballot a couple days ago with 45 cents in change taped to it. It arrived safe and sound, no stamp needed, no postage due burden on the county.
20
Goldy I also pay most of my bills online but I always have stamps handy for situations like this.
21
I can't imagine risking my ballot not being counted for the sake of saving a stamp. Not a good strategy in a tight election as is expected this November, and certainly poor advice to give to voters based on the history of one and only one ballot.
22
@10 says:

@9 Unless your fucking house goes up like a roman candle with all that fucking paper in it. Then where will you be?
--
Insured, you dumb fucking asshole. And it's hardly like I hoard all that paper forever anyway.
23
@18: That's probably why they accept postage due ballots ( that isn't generally available). A stamp could be interpreted as a very small poll tax.

States requiring voter ID are generally required to make same available for free (if requested) but I am certainly not a lawyer and may have that wrong.
24
It is delivered to the county POSTAGE DUE. So the postal service gets their money whether you put a stamp on or not.

Where the loss is at is the county auditor's office who has to pay for thousands of ballots worth of postage.

I agree with you, Goldy - it's better that someone vote than not vote, and by extension, it is better that someone vote without a stamp than not vote at all. But those are not the only options.

The advice you should be giving people now is "there's plenty of time, be a responsible citizen and buy a book of forever stamps, then you're set for this and the next 19 elections." Only pull out the "you can vote if you don't have a stamp" crap on election day after the post offices are closed. Until then, ENCOURAGE RESPONSIBILITY and don't encourage people to shortchange a government entity that is already hurting for money.
25
Oh, and Goldy, the reason there are so few free drop boxes is BECAUSE the county auditor's office is so short on funds. So you are not helping the issue.
26
@24 @25 I have literally heard someone defend not voting by saying: "It's not worth the price of the stamp." This experiment was intended to take away that excuse.

And actually, the bigger reason there are so few drop boxes is that they present logistical and security issues.
28
@26, they present logistical and security issues that CAN BE SOLVED WITH MORE MONEY. Money is the underlying problem and mailing in ballots without stamps takes away money that could otherwise go to dropboxes.
29
My ballot envelope says "postage paid" in the right corner where a stamp goes. Friends told me I needed to put a stamp on, so I did, but it seems a bit confusing...

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