EDIT: See @AnimePhantasm comment below! My friend called the election board and they confirmed what @AnimePhantasm and @fmstrat commented! This was Virginia reusing last year’s envelopes.
OP I am an absentee voter in Blacksburg just next door. Shine a light on the blacked out part. I am 99% sure this is legit, they just crossed out the witness requirement. I can see the word witness under the sharpie in your picture. Virgina doesnt have to do that witness thing anymore. We did at the last general election, so I am guessing they just reused the same envelopes. You should call and ask your elections office before alerting the news. They are hardworking folks whose jobs are already 100 times harder then they used to be. Stirring up reports of election fraud where it isn’t happening makes us just as bad as them.
This brought up a concern of mine that I had last year. I tried looking but couldn’t find it. Is there a way to verify that my vote was counted and specifically counted for whom I voted?
Edit: To clarify, my state does have voter history but only what elections I vote in, not how I voted.
Worst case scenario, someone intercepts my ballot and/or changes my vote. Website says “yep, you voted.” Great, but I want to know it was counted correctly.
Ultimately our whole voting system needs an overhaul, but I doubt that’ll happen anytime soon.
I don’t believe there is, and if there was, it could be used for some really nefarious purposes!
in my state (OR) you can sign up for an email that says when your ballot was counted but not who you voted for.
TBH idgaf who knows my vote history, I want the peace of mind that it was counted correctly.
I totally hear that, but at the same time it’s really important for a functioning democracy that the vote be secret. For one, it empowers a suppressed class to vote against their suppressor’s interests without fear of retaliation.
Now THAT is some privilege lol
Plenty of places in the US where you risk personal danger if people know how you voted.
If you mailed in a ballot then there should be a way to confirm it was received, but there should NOT be a way to see who you voted for. Just like they can confirm that you voted in person, but again can not tell who you voted for when you showed up to vote.
Typically when you vote by mail you receive a ballot plus two envelopes. You fill out the ballot and put it in the inner envelope that should contain no markings as to whose ballot it belongs to. This is put inside the second envelope that should have your contact information (my state uses a barcode for this) and that you have to sign.
When the city/town clerk receives the ballot they look up your voter registration & confirm the signature on file matches the signature on the envelope. They then check off in their records that you voted by mail on that day. They take the inner envelope out of the outer envelope and add it to the other pile of envelopes they’ve received. At some later point they open those envelopes and count the ballots, but have no way of associating a given ballot back with the person who mailed it in.
If you then try to go vote in person on Election Day (or somebody tries to impersonate you) then their records will show you already voted and you won’t be allowed to vote again.
My county in Florida allows you to show your vote was counted. Damned if I don’t check every single time.
Multiple counties have different ways, but here is a couple:
- https://www.browardvotes.gov/Voter-Information/Ballot-Status-Notifications
- https://www.votealachua.com/My-Registration-Status (registration status, but also tells you other things, including status)
My county in Washington state has a website where you can check the status. I even get text or email notifications for the status. “We received your ballot”, “the signature was verified”, “your vote has been counted”.
There was even a problem with my signature once and all I had to do was log in and verify it and it was counted.
