I’m going to say this just once.
Please don’t try to vote twice in the Nov. 3 general election.
If somehow you manage to do it and get caught, you wouldn’t be assigned to write sentences on a blackboard. Instead you could end up with a felony charge and an actual sentence – up to five years in a state prison.
Who would do such a thing, anyway? More on that later.
Perhaps you heard that recent notion out there in America’s wide world of politics encouraging voters to attempt a double-vote for Nov. 3 – once by mail and again in person.
The narrative kept changing, but the last version I heard went like this: Go ahead, vote by mail. Then, show up at the polls to see if you CAN accomplish an in-person vote, as a means to test the voting system.
Don’t do it. Darn, now I’ve said it twice. I hate what politics makes me do sometimes. (Yes, family, I am officially apologizing for my part in any past dinner-table “discussions.” I promise to do better at zipping my lip.)
The vote-twice suggestion seemed aimed at casting doubt on the reliability of an election where many will opt to vote by mail rather than risk exposure at the polls to COVID-19.
But no need to worry, here, folks. Jefferson County voting officials have got this. And, in fact, they want you to vote by mail, as long as you do it early.
County Clerk Ken Waller is predicting voter turnout as high as 75 percent of the county’s approximately 155,000 registered voters, and mailed ballots will cut down on long lines at the polls.
No votes, in mail or in person, will be counted before 7 p.m. on Election Day, but processing of mailed ballots can be done in advance – checking registered voter status, signatures on the ballots, and notarization, which is required for all “mail-in” ballots and some “absentee” ballots (those cast by those who are ill, are taking care of an ill person or who believe they are at risk of catching COVID-19 do not require the services of a notary).
There have been stories in the Leader explaining the difference between the two and the County Clerk’s Office is getting the word out in advertisements and on the county’s website, so it’s easy to figure out which category you fall in.
Five extra part-time employees are already working on requests for mailed ballots, which can start going out to voters on Sept. 22.
“We got 1,000 requests just today,” Jeannie Goff, chief of staff at the County Clerk’s Office, said last week. She expects an avalanche – more than for any previous election during her 34-year tenure in the office.
Hand Waller a snow shovel; he’s predicting 20,000 or more requests.
If that number scares you into thinking your mailed-in vote won’t be counted, Goff said it’s all right to call the office to check if your returned ballot has arrived (636-797-5486).
But don’t go to the polls to ask – that would just put you in a long line and slow things down for everyone, Goff said, and also defeat the purpose of avoiding public exposure to the virus.
And don’t try to vote a second time. (Oh, my gosh, the nagging, the nagging).
But you wouldn’t get away with it.
Election judges will have an electronic record at the polls, flagging those voters who had requested an absentee ballot and whether a return ballot had been received.
An in-person vote would still be allowed, but only if the mail-in or absentee vote had not been received, Goff said.
If the judge’s record finds no returned ballot (the deadline is 7 p.m. on Election Day), you could vote a “provisional” ballot at the polls, but it would only be counted if the mailed ballot misses the deadline.
“You only get one ballot, one vote,” Goff said.
Both Goff and Waller urge speed when it comes to returning mailed ballots. Election Day postmarks won’t get your vote counted, that can only be accomplished with your ballot’s presence in the office, on time.
Leader political reporter and Editorial Page editor Steve Taylor noted in a Sept. 10 story that 91 ballots arrived too late for the Aug. 4 primary election, so they could not be counted.
Georgia’s secretary of state alleged a few days ago that as many as 1,000 people voted twice in that state’s primary (in mail and in person). If an investigation shows he’s right, the good news is that records will show who did so, and they can be prosecuted, if the deed was done on purpose.
Our county is already on record for taking alleged voter fraud quite seriously.
In June 2017, a county resident accused of intentionally voting twice in the Nov. 4, 2014, general election went to trial for a class 1 election offense, facing that aforementioned five-year sentence and/or a $10,000 fine.
After a two-day trial and more than four hours of jury deadlock, a mistrial was declared, and the charge was dropped.
Although it turned out all right for that defendant – who said he didn’t vote twice, but if he did, it was an accident – there was a message there for the rest of us.
No matter how much we care about the outcome of the Nov. 3 election, we can vote early if we want, but not often.
I can’t help overdoing advice. I’m a mom.
