Many people think that when you vote… the person you vote for would only be known to you. Unfortunately Hawaii’s voting system is set-up so that someone can find out who you vote for.
I just voted at the Pahoa Community Center and when I showed them my ID and voting card… they took a numbered ballot, tore off the bottom section of it and handed me the top to vote on. On both the bottom part of the ballot that I was sent home and the top part of the ballot that I submitted had the number printed “No. 0195128″.
When I signed my signature into the voter registry… they entered this number into the book so that if the elections folks needed to verify something… they could see who voted for whom.
Here is a picture of my stub they sent me home with and you can see clearly on the top right hand side of the stub that it’s numbered.
So my question… why aren’t Hawaii’s voter ballots cast secretly?
Oh and remember… NO VOTE… NO GRUMBLE!
Filed under: aloha, Announcements, Community, Education, Hawaii, Legal, Legislature, Politics, Rumors, State Affairs Tagged: | Hawaii County Election Scandal, Secret Ballots, Voting in Hawaii
I’m with Damon: This sounds totally wrong. The idea that there’s a record tying a specific ballot to a specific person is clearly subject to abuse, whether the volunteers “have access to your ballot” or not. I would much rather tolerate the non-existent problem of voter fraud that have the government have a copy of my exact voting record that they “aren’t supposed to” look at.
But you cant verify your own vote.
Standard procedure. Without an identifying number, it would be impossible to verify valid voters, invalid voters, double votes, voter fraud, etc. The election volunteers do not have access to your ballot. Not a new concept. Receiving the stub with your number is actually a good thing since you now have an identifiable record should your vote be called into question…