Up north Bonner, Boundary, Shoshone, & Kootenai had ONE drop box which was located inside or in the outside the wall of the election building. Monitored.
Your position recommending monitored drop boxes makes sense. Unfortunately, County election officials who transport ballots in their cars between the drop boxes and the counting location can be compromised -- just as Postal Service employees can.
During the 2022 primaries, for example, I watched two county election officials dump ballots from a monitored drop box into a zippered bag that did not look secure before carrying the bag into their car. What happened next, I do not know. The process might have been completely aboveboard. But the point is that we do not know.
Unless we also can monitor the ***entire*** chain -- from drop box, to counting location, and during tabulation -- the potential for mismanagement still exists.
They do pickup in pairs but I suppose if both were able to collude on cheating, it would be possible. They could toss ballots though it runs the risk of someone who dropped a ballot noticing that it was never received. They could insert ballots but again, each of those would have to be attached to a valid voterID and it would have to not conflict with that voter. They could substitute ballots but they would have to match the outer envelopes or be able to steam them open and replace with fake ballots. Hmm...is that really possible to have that all done and not show up hours and hours after they would be expected back at the county?
When I asked the two Ada County election workers about it while watching the ballot transfer during the primary, their answer was: "We work in pairs, so cheating is not possible." You're probably right that nothing untoward happened, but I did not feel comfortable after this exchange.
Nor was I comforted in the General by the constant jamming of my precinct's voting machines when voting in-person on Election Day 2022. Only the first page of top-elected offices jammed; the second one never did. An election worker was required to unjam and allow me to refeed that page. Same thing then happened to the voter who followed me. And according to the poll watcher, ours was not an isolated incident. Jams had been occurring for hours prior to my voting. DOES NOT give me confidence.
Again, my tin foil hat may be shining too brightly. I hope I am wrong, and that I can crumble my hat into the nearest drop box next time.
Andy Gove (Intel) coined the phrase 'only the paranoid survive'. I think we are better off being overly concerned than ignoring things. I think not being concerned is how we got to this point that so many don't trust our elections.
Up north Bonner, Boundary, Shoshone, & Kootenai had ONE drop box which was located inside or in the outside the wall of the election building. Monitored.
Your position recommending monitored drop boxes makes sense. Unfortunately, County election officials who transport ballots in their cars between the drop boxes and the counting location can be compromised -- just as Postal Service employees can.
During the 2022 primaries, for example, I watched two county election officials dump ballots from a monitored drop box into a zippered bag that did not look secure before carrying the bag into their car. What happened next, I do not know. The process might have been completely aboveboard. But the point is that we do not know.
Unless we also can monitor the ***entire*** chain -- from drop box, to counting location, and during tabulation -- the potential for mismanagement still exists.
They do pickup in pairs but I suppose if both were able to collude on cheating, it would be possible. They could toss ballots though it runs the risk of someone who dropped a ballot noticing that it was never received. They could insert ballots but again, each of those would have to be attached to a valid voterID and it would have to not conflict with that voter. They could substitute ballots but they would have to match the outer envelopes or be able to steam them open and replace with fake ballots. Hmm...is that really possible to have that all done and not show up hours and hours after they would be expected back at the county?
When I asked the two Ada County election workers about it while watching the ballot transfer during the primary, their answer was: "We work in pairs, so cheating is not possible." You're probably right that nothing untoward happened, but I did not feel comfortable after this exchange.
Nor was I comforted in the General by the constant jamming of my precinct's voting machines when voting in-person on Election Day 2022. Only the first page of top-elected offices jammed; the second one never did. An election worker was required to unjam and allow me to refeed that page. Same thing then happened to the voter who followed me. And according to the poll watcher, ours was not an isolated incident. Jams had been occurring for hours prior to my voting. DOES NOT give me confidence.
Again, my tin foil hat may be shining too brightly. I hope I am wrong, and that I can crumble my hat into the nearest drop box next time.
Andy Gove (Intel) coined the phrase 'only the paranoid survive'. I think we are better off being overly concerned than ignoring things. I think not being concerned is how we got to this point that so many don't trust our elections.
Yes! Ignoring is easier in the short run, but the results can be disastrous.