Sorry, it's 2025 but you can't vote bc we didn't print & cut enough small pieces of paper 🤷♀️
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Except they have a much higher rate of lost or miscounted ballots.
But the two methods can be used together to create an improved system: electronic ballots with a printed 'receipt'. My state uses this method. Before submitting your ballot, it displays the paper receipt and asks you to confirm your choices. If it's incorrect or you want to change it, you can reject the ballot and it is immediately voided in front of you. If it's fine, you press a button and it submits both the digital and paper copies of your ballot.
Election monitors can then validate the calculated results against the paper receipts.
If you really wanted to be security minded, you could go a step further - have the ballot printing machines keep a per-machine count of ballots they've done and print a ballot with human readable votes and a barcode detailing the same. Have a second machine scan those ballots and drop them into a locked box. None of them are connected to a network or have an accessible open port anywhere on them. There is however a locked access panel on the back of each machine where an SD card is inserted. As ballots are printed and scanned each machine's SD card records what happens. The two types of machines are made by different manufacturers and validated by a third party.
At close of polls, all the machines are asked to report their results. If there is a discrepancy between what the ballot printers report and what the ballot scanners report, it's time for a manual recount of that polling location. Then the SD cards are pulled from all the machines and shipped to the relevant election board to check the contents against the reports. Also manual recount 5% of polling locations (minimum one) selected at random. If discrepancies show up in more than a 1% of polling locations, manual recount the entire election. For all these manual recounts, the human readable portion of the paper ballot is the final authority.
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I could see low expectations from the registrar of voters for turnout, but 60 people in the entire city? And they just didn’t have any kind of plans if more showed up?
This is the kind of election where usually only people who specifically are invested in the thing bother, I wouldn't be surprised if the last time one of these happened they literally did average about 20 votes per polling place, and their plan if more showed up was supplying 15x more ballots than they needed last time, just in case. Which wasn't remotely enough.
wrote on last edited by [email protected]The thing is this was the first of its kind election for this district, so where did those estimates even come from? If you give a number it's got to be from somewhere right?
And they were just paper ballots. Nothing special about them. Here's a picture of one of the ballots
Literally nobody could find a printer and some scissors and tell voters they would have more ballots in an hour or so?
This is the kind of election where usually only people who specifically are invested in the thing bother
This is exactly why so many people showed up. The district encompasses 5 parishes. Both candidates represent different parts of the district with different interests at stake.
The incumbent candidate lives in New Orleans, runs urban gardens around the city, and used her position on the board to create a program that has allowed others to create more gardens and rent tools through the program.
The candidate that challenged her is a commercial fisherman from a smaller town. The department that has jurisdiction over the board is set to be given oversight of testing for seafood safety and regulations. The bill is literally just sitting on the Governor's desk waiting to be signed.
I am honestly kind of suspicious of the candidate that challenged her bc he never mentioned this while he was running.
Putting that aside, and assuming his intentions were good, I could also see why many voters in smaller communities within the district, who depend on the fishing industry for jobs, would want someone like him to have the position on the board.
The incumbent was announced the winner, and that's who I voted for. I still believe there should be a re-do. Voters were turned away from an election that their tax dollars paid for. Unacceptable.
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Elections official here, though in a different state.
I'm glad you commented bc I have a question you might be able to answer. The district covers 5 parishes (we do parishes instead of counties) but the news article states the registrar of voters provided the number of 300 ballots at each location and expectation of 20 voters.
Only 3 of the 5 parishes actually had voting locations, so voters from 2 parishes had to travel to vote.
Each parish has its own registrar. It's unclear which parish the registrar that provided that estimate is from, but why would anyone expect the estimated number of voters in smaller parishes to be exactly the same as larger parishes?
I don’t know if some party just googled “election” and mobilized for this, but this kind of turnout was new and unexpected.
The only reason there was an election is because the incumbent candidate was suddenly challenged by a commercial fishing captain. Keep this in mind, and remember that because of our proximity to the gulf, fishing and seafood is still a pretty big industry for the state.
It was all very odd, and caught people's attention mainly because:
A. Typically people on the board hold these seats unchallenged for as long as they wish to remain on the board.
B. The district covers 5 parishes, but this board member is from New Orleans/Orleans Parish. She runs several urban gardens and contributes to local farmers markets. This is likely why she was able to mobilize so many voters, and why the news of the vote spread like it did.
C. Some weird things that have happened regarding voting the last two times the city voted, has everyone on high alert for attempts to sneak corruption through without people realizing it.
The election was on Saturday. As it turns out, the Tuesday before the election, the Louisiana Senate President had signed a bill to change the regulation process for seafood safety and testing. It is still sitting on the governor's desk, just waiting to be signed.
The bill also gives oversight of seafood regulation to the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry. The conservation board the candidates were running for also just happens to fall under the jurisdiction of this same department.
Louisiana lawmakers send seafood safety, oversight bill to Landry's desk
House Bill 652, authored by Rep. Timothy Kerner, R-Lafitte, dissolves the current Seafood Safety Task Force under the Department of Culture, Recreation and Tourism and reestablishes it within the Agriculture Department.
Kerner said the bill was carefully amended to ensure that domestic shrimpers are not inadvertently swept up in new enforcement efforts.
If this is all be one big coincidence, it certainly is an odd one. Rather than risk some kind of typical Louisiana good ole boy corruption BS, why not just allow everyone that wants to vote, the chance to vote?
It turns out the incumbent candidate from New Orleans won, but they're not releasing any numbers of how many votes she actually won compared to the other candidate.
I voted for her, but I still strongly believe they should call for a re-do bc this all sets a very bad precedent for the future. Even though it's not a normal election, our tax dollars fund this board. You should not be able to turn voters away, and then just shrug it off as incompetence or special circumstance.
wrote on last edited by [email protected]Well shoot... My whole comment just disappeared. I'll do bullet points.
Even though my state is vote by mail, smaller districts like the conservation district follow different rules based on their founding documents and may do elections completely differently. Ours did theirs in person because that's what their framework is.
Ballot ordering should be based on history. If they only had that little available, it suggests to me that may have been historically sufficient. What was the turnout last time? How much money would it be worth spending on ballots and polling places for that many/few voters?
I agree that they shouldn't be turning anyone away. In my state we can print ballots on demand if we need them. I wish every state was invested in preventing disenfranchisement.
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Well shoot... My whole comment just disappeared. I'll do bullet points.
Even though my state is vote by mail, smaller districts like the conservation district follow different rules based on their founding documents and may do elections completely differently. Ours did theirs in person because that's what their framework is.
Ballot ordering should be based on history. If they only had that little available, it suggests to me that may have been historically sufficient. What was the turnout last time? How much money would it be worth spending on ballots and polling places for that many/few voters?
I agree that they shouldn't be turning anyone away. In my state we can print ballots on demand if we need them. I wish every state was invested in preventing disenfranchisement.
wrote on last edited by [email protected]This was the first of its kind of election in the district, so I would really like to know where they got those estimated numbers, and if they went only by one parish voter registrar when determining the numbers for 5 different parishes
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The election is unique in that it is organized and managed by the district itself, not the Louisiana Secretary of State's office, and seats on the board are rarely contested. The race for this particular seat is reported to be the first ever.
So perhaps some degree of incompetence/not having any clue how many people would show up. Not necessarily malicious intent. Seems like it was such a shitshow it'll force a redo. Clearly it should.
So perhaps some degree of incompetence/not having any clue how many people would show up.
The age old question "Were they stupid or evil?"
I guess we'll see who wins the seat. If it just so happens to be an industry flak who toes the line every time the local oligarchs snap their fingers and gets generous kickbacks for the effort without ever being questioned, I'm putting my money on "evil". If its a clueless perennial candidate who just throws their hat into every race, then takes office and blunders around for six months before being removed by the county/state on ethics charges, I'll concede it may just be election management stupidity.
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How are we still giving Republicans the benefit of the doubt? What will it take?
wrote on last edited by [email protected]Hey now, its Louisiana. No shortage of corrupt legacy Democrats. William Jefferson being a hallmark example.
The whole state is pay-2-play. Also, incidentally, an absolute hotbed of smuggling and espionage going back to the Huey Long era. Tons of Soviet-Era spying. Tons of FBI ratfvcking. Tons of mob activity. Like, when you hear about the CIA move coke in from Colombia, it's a coin-flip chance the product was moved through Miami or New Orleans.
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Very detailed Lemmy post I wrote about this fuckery and more
Local news article containing the quote about the voter registrar
On Homer Plessey Way, board member Daniel Milojevic stood outside the Bywater polling place in the Press Street Gallery suggesting people try the two Jefferson Parish locations.
He said the local registrar of voters gave the district only 300 ballots per location and told them they could expect about 20 people.
“We had to confirm the number of ballots weeks ago,” he said, before it was clear how high the turnout would be. Milojevic conceded that planning had clearly missed the mark.
As one astute gentleman asked while defending Reddit, and accusing me of spreading misinformation:
If hardly anybody knew, how did turnout exceed expectations within 2 hours?
Because the "expectation" provided by the registrar was literally 20 voters per location (60 voters in total) for the entire fucking city.
Only in America.
No ballots, not the problem for the voter. If the voter wants to vote, get them a ballot, even if you have to order a transfer.
My country is on the fast lane for fascism as well but we still follow electoral law.
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Very detailed Lemmy post I wrote about this fuckery and more
Local news article containing the quote about the voter registrar
On Homer Plessey Way, board member Daniel Milojevic stood outside the Bywater polling place in the Press Street Gallery suggesting people try the two Jefferson Parish locations.
He said the local registrar of voters gave the district only 300 ballots per location and told them they could expect about 20 people.
“We had to confirm the number of ballots weeks ago,” he said, before it was clear how high the turnout would be. Milojevic conceded that planning had clearly missed the mark.
As one astute gentleman asked while defending Reddit, and accusing me of spreading misinformation:
If hardly anybody knew, how did turnout exceed expectations within 2 hours?
Because the "expectation" provided by the registrar was literally 20 voters per location (60 voters in total) for the entire fucking city.
FREE & FAIR ELECTIONS OR GTFO
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This was the first of its kind of election in the district, so I would really like to know where they got those estimated numbers, and if they went only by one parish voter registrar when determining the numbers for 5 different parishes
According to the news article "300 ballots would be available at each of the eight polling places" so that's a lot less unreasonable than I was thinking. The fact that this race got a news article is also noteworthy, in the past these races weren't considered important enough. I'm sure that helped bring more people in.
I also wonder what the regulations governing that district say. Maybe the law says something about having a certain number of ballots and closing the election after they are cast. If that were the case this would be a legislature problem, not an elections office problem.
Remember kids, sometimes the law requires or allows stupid things.
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According to the news article "300 ballots would be available at each of the eight polling places" so that's a lot less unreasonable than I was thinking. The fact that this race got a news article is also noteworthy, in the past these races weren't considered important enough. I'm sure that helped bring more people in.
I also wonder what the regulations governing that district say. Maybe the law says something about having a certain number of ballots and closing the election after they are cast. If that were the case this would be a legislature problem, not an elections office problem.
Remember kids, sometimes the law requires or allows stupid things.
wrote on last edited by [email protected]This is the first time there has ever been a challenge to a seat and an election in this district, so where did they get the idea that estimated voters would only be ~20/location?
They said that they got it from the registrar of voters, but each parish has its own registrar and the district covers 5 parishes. So which parish/registrar came up with that number, what was it based on since it was the first election? Why was the same number applied equally when taking 5 different parishes into consideration?
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This is the first time there has ever been a challenge to a seat and an election in this district, so where did they get the idea that estimated voters would only be ~20/location?
They said that they got it from the registrar of voters, but each parish has its own registrar and the district covers 5 parishes. So which parish/registrar came up with that number, what was it based on since it was the first election? Why was the same number applied equally when taking 5 different parishes into consideration?
Those are all good questions, but I do want to point out that if they were really expecting 20 voters at each location and had 300 ballots at each, it suggests that they were trying to be well prepared and got bad information/advice somewhere. This would argue against bad intent.
That doesn't mean they still didn't screw up, but it could be the difference between conspiracy and just unprepared
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The thing is this was the first of its kind election for this district, so where did those estimates even come from? If you give a number it's got to be from somewhere right?
And they were just paper ballots. Nothing special about them. Here's a picture of one of the ballots
Literally nobody could find a printer and some scissors and tell voters they would have more ballots in an hour or so?
This is the kind of election where usually only people who specifically are invested in the thing bother
This is exactly why so many people showed up. The district encompasses 5 parishes. Both candidates represent different parts of the district with different interests at stake.
The incumbent candidate lives in New Orleans, runs urban gardens around the city, and used her position on the board to create a program that has allowed others to create more gardens and rent tools through the program.
The candidate that challenged her is a commercial fisherman from a smaller town. The department that has jurisdiction over the board is set to be given oversight of testing for seafood safety and regulations. The bill is literally just sitting on the Governor's desk waiting to be signed.
I am honestly kind of suspicious of the candidate that challenged her bc he never mentioned this while he was running.
Putting that aside, and assuming his intentions were good, I could also see why many voters in smaller communities within the district, who depend on the fishing industry for jobs, would want someone like him to have the position on the board.
The incumbent was announced the winner, and that's who I voted for. I still believe there should be a re-do. Voters were turned away from an election that their tax dollars paid for. Unacceptable.
The thing is this was the first of its kind election for this district, so where did those estimates even come from? If you give a number it’s got to be from somewhere right?
So, this board has never since it's creation had to have an actual election? It's always been someone running unopposed?
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The thing is this was the first of its kind election for this district, so where did those estimates even come from? If you give a number it’s got to be from somewhere right?
So, this board has never since it's creation had to have an actual election? It's always been someone running unopposed?
wrote on last edited by [email protected]Yes, in this district nobody has ever challenged a board seat, and it's only happened 7 times throughout the history of the state in other districts.
Usually people just have the seat until they decide to step down.
