Military votes being disallowed?

[NikPreviousAcct]

No, I'm not trying to start a flame war. I have heard, however, that military votes are not being counted because it's illegal to poll the military. Someone please tell me this is a crock of crap and back it up with some respectable links?

 

[KK]

Originally posted by: Nik
No, I'm not trying to start a flame war. I have heard, however, that military votes are not being counted because it's illegal to poll the military. Someone please tell me this is a crock of crap and back it up with some respectable links?

Crock of crap, no source for my opinion though.

 

[Train]

There are scattered attempts by the dems to discount absentee ballots from military members overseas every 4 years, nothing new there. Though I havent heard much about it this year. The reps are guarding one of thier strongest demographics.

It is true that the military votes often are not even counted. But thats not a bad thing, look at is this way. Your couting a states votes, one candidate is ahead by 10,000 votes. Then all these military ballots come in from overseas, there are 8,000 of them. There is no chance these votes will change the outcome of that state. Therefore they just dont bother to count them.

 

[TravisT]

What kind of system do they have for our military soldiers overseas (apparently the majority of them supporting Bush) going to vote?

 

[cKGunslinger]

Originally posted by: Nik
No, I'm not trying to start a flame war. I have heard, however, that military votes are not being counted because it's illegal to poll the military. Someone please tell me this is a crock of crap and back it up with some respectable links?

Wait, are you asking if the military is not being polled or if their actual votes are being disallowed? If so, your title and actual post slightly differ and may spark some confusion.

 

[Dissipate]

Why should government employees be allowed to vote themselves pay raises? Nobody in government should be allowed to vote.

 

[Train]

Originally posted by: Dissipate
Why should government employees be allowed to vote themselves pay raises? Nobody in government should be allowed to vote.

thats about the dumbest thing Ive read in a while.

 

[FelixDeCat]

I wonder if this has more to do with the fact the members of the military historically vote majority Republican and the related hijinks that take place by the Democrats to disenfranchise their vote?

 

[Don Vito Corleone]

Originally posted by: TravisT
What kind of system do they have for our military soldiers overseas (apparently the majority of them supporting Bush) going to vote?

We vote through absentee ballots like anyone else. DoD has made a real push to promote military voting this year.

Many, many military members live outside their state of legal residence (for example, I am a California citizen and voter, although I've lived in AL, OK, WA, and the middle east since I've joined the AF), so those who care about voting generally know how. Each base also has a voting program coordinator who will help them request absentee ballots.

The only minor issue with this is that in some forward-deployed environments, the slow progress of the mail can inhibit voting somewhat. Many states (including mine, CA) have provisions allowing military members to request ballots earlier, to ensure they have enough time to be mailed both ways and still arrive in time.

 

[dahunan]

I will bet the numbers will not be anywhere near as high for Bush as some of you RBL's think it will be...

 

[dullard]

Originally posted by: Train
There are scattered attempts by the dems to discount absentee ballots from military members overseas every 4 years, nothing new there.

I think you misunderstood the topic of the thread. Nik asked about polling the military in his post - ie the results we see in the polls that come out daily. Unfortunately Nik's thread title is misleading. Train, you discussed issues with voting on election day which is unrelated to this thread.

Nik, Gallup made their web page a subscription only thing. But I had posted at Anandtech with quotes from that now subscription only page. Here is the relavant portion from Gallup:

Today, approximately 95% of all households have a telephone and every survey reported in this book is based on interviews conducted by telephone...creates a list of all possible household phone numbers in America and then selects a subset of numbers from that list for Gallup to call...College students living on campus, armed forces personnel living on military bases...are not represented in Gallup?s "sampling frame." Clearly these exclusions represent some diminishment in the coverage of the population, but... it is a compromise Gallup usually needs to make.

Anyone who doesn't have a US home phone line in their name is not ever called in any of the polls. That means these people are not polled:
[*]Cell phone only users. This effect is discussed in many other threads here and is a probable slight benefit to Kerry if any effect at all.
[*]Poor who cannot afford any phone line. I haven't seen a discussion on this yet - probable big benefit to Kerry when these non-polled people vote.
[*]People who just don't like contact with the outside world (hermits and the like). I have no clue who will benefit when these people vote.
[*]People living on foreign ground. They can certainly vote, but they aren't on the list of phone numbers to call. These people overwhelmingly will vote Kerry.
[*]People in institutions: military, college dorms, jails, nursing homes, etc. Basically these people don't have a home phone line (they have a corporate or governmental phone line if any). This is a mixed bag. Military will vote Bush, college will vote Kerry, jails will probably split, and nursing homes I think will vote Kerry (I may be wrong here).

So yes, lots of people aren't included. Nik is correct, the military is one group who is excluded from the polls. These are the reasons polls are so different from the real election results.

 

[NikPreviousAcct]

Originally posted by: dullard

Originally posted by: Train
There are scattered attempts by the dems to discount absentee ballots from military members overseas every 4 years, nothing new there.

I think you misunderstood the topic of the thread. Nik asked about polling the military in his post - ie the results we see in the polls that come out daily. Unfortunately Nik's thread title is misleading. Train, you discussed issues with voting on election day which is unrelated to this thread.

Nik, Gallup made their web page a subscription only thing. But I had posted at Anandtech with quotes from that now subscription only page. Here is the relavant portion from Gallup:

Today, approximately 95% of all households have a telephone and every survey reported in this book is based on interviews conducted by telephone...creates a list of all possible household phone numbers in America and then selects a subset of numbers from that list for Gallup to call...College students living on campus, armed forces personnel living on military bases...are not represented in Gallup?s "sampling frame." Clearly these exclusions represent some diminishment in the coverage of the population, but... it is a compromise Gallup usually needs to make.

Anyone who doesn't have a US home phone line in their name is not ever called in any of the polls. That means these people are not polled:
[*]Cell phone only users. This effect is discussed in many other threads here and is a probable slight benefit to Kerry.
[*]Poor who cannot afford any phone line. I haven't seen a discussion on this yet - probable big benefit to Kerry when these non-polled people vote.
[*]People who just don't like contact with the outside world (hermits and the like). I have no clue who will benefit when these people vote.
[*]People living on foreign ground. They can certainly vote, but they aren't on the list of phone numbers to call. These people overwhelmingly will vote Kerry.
[*]People in institutions: military, college dorms, jails, nursing homes, etc. Basically these people don't have a home phone line (they have a corporate phone line if any). This is a mixed bag. Military will vote Bush, college will vote Kerry, jails will probably split, and nursing homes I think will vote Kerry (I may be wrong here).

So yes, lots of people aren't included. Nik is correct, the military is one group who is excluded from the polls. These are the reasons polls are so different from the real election results.

I don't have a cell phone or a lan line in my name and I got a call yesterday about the vote.

So you're saying a poll is different than the election?

 

[dullard]

Originally posted by: Nik
I don't have a cell phone or a lan line in my name and I got a call yesterday about the vote.

So you're saying a poll is different than the election?

I think it is illegal for them to call your cell phone. I guess that doesn't mean it won't happen.

Yes I'm saying election results will be different from polls. Polls themselves can't even agree with different polls. So of course election results won't agree with many polls.