this post was submitted on 28 Oct 2024
434 points (99.1% liked)

politics

19096 readers
3072 users here now

Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!

Rules:

  1. Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.

Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.

Example:

  1. Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
  2. Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
  3. No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
  4. Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
  5. No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.

That's all the rules!

Civic Links

Register To Vote

Citizenship Resource Center

Congressional Awards Program

Federal Government Agencies

Library of Congress Legislative Resources

The White House

U.S. House of Representatives

U.S. Senate

Partnered Communities:

News

World News

Business News

Political Discussion

Ask Politics

Military News

Global Politics

Moderate Politics

Progressive Politics

UK Politics

Canadian Politics

Australian Politics

New Zealand Politics

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

State and federal authorities are investigating a deliberately set fire that destroyed ballots inside a drop box in southwest Washington on Monday morning.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] TherapyGary@lemmy.blahaj.zone 43 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Ballots typically have identifiers such as voter information or barcodes that help election officials match them to specific voters, allowing them to contact those whose ballots were compromised and ensure they can cast a new vote.

Voters who used the affected drop box after the last collection time are encouraged to contact the Clark County Auditor's office to verify if their ballot was among those destroyed and to obtain a replacement (source)

[–] tiefling@lemmy.blahaj.zone 29 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

So the onus is on the voters, meaning those votes are likely lost :/

[–] EmpathicVagrant@lemmy.world 21 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I’m sure most of the people living there who recently dropped a ballot in that box will care enough to ask the same thing though.

I called the election board near me recently and learned my vote was deactivated because I changed registration, so my new ballot will be counted sooner but if I do nothing they’ll just count it on 15 Nov

[–] xantoxis@lemmy.world 2 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I agree that almost everyone affected would WANT to vote again; most of the work of voting is deciding who to vote for, and they've already done that.

Another problem though is that not everyone affected will know that anything happened to their ballot.

[–] chiliedogg@lemmy.world 3 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

But what other options are there? The ballots were destroyed, so there's no way to know who to contact to let them know it happened.

[–] xantoxis@lemmy.world 2 points 2 weeks ago

Yeah, I don't see any other option. I'm just saying it ain't good.

[–] Leeks@lemmy.world 7 points 2 weeks ago

If you are worried your mail in ballot is having issues, many states will allow you to cast a “provisional ballot” that only gets counted after they verify if your mail in ballot was processed.

[–] chiliedogg@lemmy.world 3 points 2 weeks ago

Since the ballots hadn't been collected, there's no way for the state to know the identity of voters who dropped off ballots that were destroyed in the fire because those ballots were destroyed.