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I was born in the US, and vote by post in California - San Francisco. Given discussions of absentee ballots in the US, I thought some people might be interested in what the ballot actually looks like! I think it's all quite surprising ... so here's an unboxing thread
{Having trouble getting twitter to post pics .... more soon}
This rather thick package arrives in an envelope as shown (I’ve tried to cover up identifying information). Not that it is available in multiple languages, and each ballot is multilingual - I have the English/Chinese version
Inside, there’s instructions, a ballot return envelope, and the actual ballot pages themselves. Already you can see a lot of small print and far more words than would be present on a UK postal ballot. But let’s start by looking at the instructions.
The instructions are reasonably clear, and there’s a sticker included to encourage other people to vote. Nice. You can also track your ballot to check that it is counted, which is useful. Votes can be returned by post or in person ... or by fax. Fax! When did you last use a fax?
There’s a reply paid (US) envelope to send back your vote. Shockingly, to my mind, it asks for your name, US address, and signature ON THE OUTSIDE OF THE ENVELOPE! It also asks for phone number and email, and your home address is pre-printed. That’s a lot of info to see
If someone can see the envelope, they can trivially scrape lots of information that would be very useful for fraud. I would advise people never to put that information semi-public, but you have to to vote by post! In the UK, this information is inside the envelope.
There’s also a serious problem - people processing the ballot can see your name and address while sorting, delivering etc. This means that a malign postal or poll worker could filter out votes based on name or address - good predictors of ethnicity, voting plans etc
I don’t know if there’s any evidence that this happens, but it’s an obvious vulnerability. Selective delay of eg ‘black-sounding’ names could swing elections. In the UK, the outside envelope only says which election it is, making it impossible to selectively process postal votes
There are lots of things to vote on at once! In this case, I have 33 things to vote on - and that's far from a record. These are spread across four long double sided pages. (roughly 22x49 cm).
Page 1 has the famous elections: President & Vice-President, Federal and State Reps. Reasonably clear what to do here, as long as you don't confuse the columns. Did you realise there were 6 different tickets for President (in California) - and it looks like Kanye is going for VP!
Interestingly, unlike in the UK where ballots give candidate addresses, the information given is party preference (with no logos) and their current job description. So for Congress, I can vote for 'Public Interest Lawyer' or 'Member of Congress'. Nice for incumbents.
The back of ballot 1 has elections for school boards and Bay Area Rapid Transport. Unlike 1st side, you get multiple votes for some of these, and there's space for write-ins. Again, do you want 'Community College Vice-President' or 'Futures Trader' for Community College Board?
Ballot 2 has state propositions. The voting is simple, but the propositions aren't. They are complex and detailed, and often hard to really work out exactly what they mean. The language is difficult, and consequences unclear. Can the general public really process all this?
Ballot 2, page 2 ... more state propositions. These are big issues, many of which I feel strongly on - but is this sort of vote the best way to make such decisions? Can there possibly be sufficient public discussion about them all in the context of one election?
Ballot 3 is San Francisco measures. Lots of very complex measures - see F for complex finances, for example, and others which feel very organisational. Should SF have a Department of Sanitation and Streets? Seems to me like something the Mayor should make an executive decision on
Ballot 3 page 2 - more SF & district votes. Again, highly complex tax decisions, some unclear proposals - which new permissible uses would there be in the new planning code? It's rarely clear what was in place before - is 10k low-income rental houses more or less than before?
Page 4 - nearly there! Votes for Board of Supervisors for SF - a bit like the local Council. Interestingly, this is an election using AV, plus write-in option (but only 1). So we have FPTP, Electoral College, multiple votes, yes/no and AV, all in the same pack of votes.
And that's it. Let's imagine you're a random resident of SF, going in to vote. How long do you think it would take you to think about how you will vote on all of these? How much attention can any of them get in the context of the rest of the election? No wonder so many don't vote
