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Imperceptible Relics's avatar

In Illinois,

"A voter may authorize any person to return their ballot

to the election authority, as long as the voter has signed

the affidavit on the ballot envelope affirming that

authorization was given to deliver the ballot.

• If available, a voter may return their vote by mail ballot

to a collection site (drop box) postage free before the

close of the polls on Election Day.

• Voting by mail includes the same obligations as those

who vote in the polling place on Election Day.

• The affidavits on the application and the ballot

envelope must be signed. These affidavits attest to the

accuracy of the information provided on the

application. The affidavit on the envelope also attests

to the fact that the voter is voting their own ballot in

secret.

• If the voter receives assistance in voting their ballot, the

name and address of the individual providing the

assistance must be placed on the ballot certification

envelope. Remember that a candidate is NOT allowed

to assist a voter unless the candidate is a spouse,

parent, child, or sibling of that voter."

https://elections.il.gov/electionoperations/votingbymail.aspx

Also, has the Rasmussen poll accounted for the fact that the adult literacy rate is 79%?

https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2019/2019179/index.asp

A person can identify their candidate on a ballot, but not be able to complete a survey well enough if they don't understand the question. Obviously things like getting paid for a vote is a serious issue, and pretty hard to misinterpret, but on the question of whether they filled out a ballot for someone- disabled, very elderly, and assisted as a spouse, they may have been interpreting the question as assistance within the legally allowed rules- spouse, parent, child, or sibling of voter. Thus, #3, 4, and 9 does not imply fraud, because states allow relatives to "assist." That could mean anything from the person too weak to fill out the bubble, or they are blind and request the bubble to be filled out.

It's also possible that an illiterate person interpreted # 8 as an absentee ballot, rather than voting for another state.

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ssri's avatar

In FL we do not require witnesses to a mail in ballot signature, and that is probably a weakness that should be corrected, but it must also be something of a minor pain to find someone who can witness your ballot signature who is not also a member of your household, which sort of defeats the purpose of having an "independent" witness. Do you need to go find (and maybe even pay for) a "professional" witness, or go to their location? Should the county hire people to provide such "witnessing services" during the election season? I kind of like that last idea, but it would only be affordable for locales where the need and justification for remote voting is low. But I presume some jurisdictions already send someone to nursing homes and other "high density" remote voter sites.

But such witnessing has two aspects to it: just confirming that the person who signed the ballot envelope was a human, etc. [the witness may not actually know the signer?]; and then having some form of ID verfication of the signer before the witness signs in turn [via drivers license or other decent but not fool proof ID], or that the witness knows the ID of the signer from past acquaintance.

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