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A few questions...
The not being required to count postal votes, like seriously? WTF?
How is it possible to vote in multiple locations? Do you literally turn up at any polling place and vote, no check at all?
In the UK when you register to vote you are assigned a local polling station. You can only vote at that station, your name and address is on a list there. We are sent polling cards in the post in a run up to the election with details of the vote but we don't need to take them with us. If you knew someone else's name and address you could potentially vote in place of them, but not extra, in the sense that only the names registered to vote can vote once, at their specific location.
If we are to introduce some check (which isn't needed since there's next to fuck all voter fraud over here), I'd just make it that we have to present our polling cards, nothing more.
I think the difference in the states is that you have the whole State vs Federal debate, which causes so many different laws and systems. IMO, you're voting for President, the Federal leader, there should be one system, one set of laws, and every person should have equal rights above a certain age (18 but I'd say 16). I'm unsure on the voting rights of prisoners, I'd say you should be able to vote irrelevant. But at the very least once you've been released (or served the sentence length) be able to vote and have full rights. Partial rights after release is just bollocks.
I will attempt to answer your questions, please keep in mind that I am just an average person, not a legal expert in voting.
Postal votes - I was very surprised and angered by this. I had no idea until that particular Gore / Bush election when the system was scrutinized a bit more. The response from the local county registrar of voters was essentially "we assume that the votes cast by mail statistically follow the ones cast at the polls, so there is no need to open them".
I am not sure if I believe that or not, but I really don't think it matters. If I took the time to vote, they should at least pretend that my vote matters.
The ratio of mail in votes vs cast at the polls has increased dramatically over the past 10 years, so now they claim that they do in fact count them.
Voting in multiple locations
There are a couple of steps to voting:
- The very first time that you want to vote, or move and want to vote at a new address, you have to register. This is either on-line or more commonly by sending in a post card available for free at any local post office.
- The registration is done at the county level, so you can in theory register to vote in every county of every state if you chose to. (doing this is a misdemeanor, so not legal, but it can be done)
- Once you have voted in an election, more or less your name is on the list for that address forever, even if you move away or die. There is no system to remove names, and any attempt to do this is highly criticized.
Over the past 40 years, I have lived in 6 locations in 4 states. There is a very good chance that my name is still on the voter registration for those locations and I would have no difficulty voting in at least 5 of them. The small town I grew up in would be risky because everyone knows each other.
In many states, there is a time delay of 2 -4 weeks between registration and the election. This gives them time to put your name on the list "officially". In some states, (I think CA, but not sure) you can register and vote on the same day. (I am pretty sure that no ID of any kind is required)
When you arrive at the designated polling place for your neighborhood, there are two books that cross check your name and address, and you have to sign it. No ID is needed, and I can't help but notice that two of my children who have not lived with us for 10 years still have their names in the book, but actually are registered and vote in other cities.
It would be very simple for them (or someone pretending to be them) to vote under their name and the chance of being caught is nearly zero.
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