Sign in / up

back to article New Jersey allows email voting

Voters displaced by Hurricane Sandy will be able to vote in the US Presidential election by email or fax. The electronic poll will take place in the US State of New Jersey, thanks to a decision by Lt. Governor Kim Guadagno, who feels it is unfair for displaced people, and emergency services workers, to be deprived of their …

COMMENTS

House rules Send corrections
This topic is closed for new posts.
  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    This is news to me.

    I thought New Jersey got wiped off the map. But its governor obviously provided enough ballast.

    0 0
  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Hello, I am from the Microsoft Google Sweepstakes

    I would like to vote for Mitt Romney, but need $100,000 to setup a voting booth

    You can transfer this to my account at the bank of nigeria

    2 0
  3. Mike Henderson
    Holmes

    Is this legal?

    Can the Governor of New Jersey actually just designate a whole category of persons who are not overseas as "Overseas Voters"? I mean, obviously he has, but does that stand any chance of prevailing when the losing candidate claims that all these votes are invalid? Particularly if NJ's15 Electoral College votes swing the election one way or the other.

    This is one of the more amusing features of the Virginian colonies' quaint voting system: there doesn't seem to be any real process for a significant delay in the voting, or for declaring an individual state's vote to have been invalidly conducted and requiring to be done again. That was the obvious deciding factor in the Supreme Court when Dubya won the Florida vote the first time: even the thought of declaring the Florida vote null and void was too awful for the Supreme Court Justices to contemplate, and to put it back to the ballot would have wrecked the carefully orchestrated timetable of Electoral College and Inauguration Day.

    Might be time to get in extra popcorn & drinks, could be an outstanding fireworks display

    0 0
    1. peyton?
      Reply Icon
      Devil

      Re: Is this legal?

      The debate on whether we should continue the "electoral college' comes up every election year. Pretty much boils down to congress would have to take action to get rid of it. And "action" is to congress what kryptonite is to Superman, so there ya go: the US will always have the electoral college.

      0 0
    2. Robert Helpmann??
      Reply Icon
      Childcatcher

      Re: Is this legal?

      One of the peculiarities of the American political system is that the US constitution mandates certain things but leaves the pesky details of implementation to the individual states and, in this case, the District of Columbia. This ensures 51 different ways of doing the same thing. It also allows flexibility in the face of an emergency - as is the case in NJ at this time. It is not a perfect system by any means, but it does have some benefits.

      One outcome of the 2000 election is that many states now have automatic recounts in place in the event of a close election (those within a half or quarter point). Far from making the process quicker, it guarantees that the outcome will not be definitive in a close election until days after the polls are closed. This election will run with all the legal and political fireworks of the past, with an extra sprinkling of conspiracy theories and acrimony induced by the mandatory delays.

      0 0
  4. Nameless Faceless Computer User
    FAIL

    Our military defends democracy with their lives.

    Our politicians keep finding ways to stop people from voting.

    Does anyone else see a huge disconnect?

    1 0
  5. Robert Grant

    Er

    So you still have to physically turn up somewhere to collect/deliver your vote by mail form? Why not just turn up somewhere and vote, then?

    0 0
This topic is closed for new posts.