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Adventures in early voting
Friday, Oct 7, 2016 - Posted by Rich Miller * Lynn Sweet on President Obama’s Chicago fundraising events…
* Speaking of DPI, the state party has started its vote by mail program this week with a letter from Secretary of State Jesse White, a form and a postage-paid return envelope…  * Except the form is far too wide to fit in the envelope, because the envelope has glue strips inside that make it much smaller than it appears from the outside. The internal glue strips are highlighted for you here along with the form…  * So, the potential voter could very well wind up tossing the whole thing in the trash rather than deal with jamming the form into the too-small envelope. Or, since they’ve already filled out the form by then, maybe they’ll just fold it again themselves, which makes the return envelope a lot thicker…  And if the resulting hand-folding winds up being more than a quarter of an inch thick, the Postal Service charges a higher price, and may not even process it. Oops. * Yeah, it’s a little thing, but little things can matter a lot and the Democrats’ coordinated campaign has had real problems with this sort of stuff in the past.
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- Publius - Friday, Oct 7, 16 @ 12:02 pm:
Proof democrats aren’t capable of organized voter fraud
- NIU Grad - Friday, Oct 7, 16 @ 12:03 pm:
Wow. Just wow. Yet another example of how out-of-date and disorganized the party organization has become recently…
- Anonymous - Friday, Oct 7, 16 @ 12:03 pm:
“if the ballot don’t fit, you’ve got to quit”
- thunderspirit - Friday, Oct 7, 16 @ 12:04 pm:
Gold star for Publius.
Well played.
- NIU Grad - Friday, Oct 7, 16 @ 12:04 pm:
“Proof democrats aren’t capable of organized voter fraud”
If they’re going to be good of at least one thing…it might as well be that?
- Casual observer - Friday, Oct 7, 16 @ 12:18 pm:
Whoever designed the (non)matching form and envelope deserves a big promotion based on the Peter Principle. /s
- Biker - Friday, Oct 7, 16 @ 12:22 pm:
It’s really too bad there isn’t some way to make use of the internet to request a ballot to be mailed to me: http://cookcountyclerk.com/elections/mailvoting/Pages/default.aspx
- Chicago_Downstater - Friday, Oct 7, 16 @ 12:22 pm:
This could be a problem for the Senate Race, but won’t likely change the Presidential Contest. But Could you imagine if this happened in a swing state like Florida or Pennsylvania?
“I do bigly swear that I will most successfully execute the yuge Office of President of the United States…”
- Skeptic - Friday, Oct 7, 16 @ 12:23 pm:
“Whoever designed the (non)matching form and envelope deserves a big promotion” My guess would be that it was design by committee. /snark
- Not It - Friday, Oct 7, 16 @ 12:34 pm:
If this is a party mailing then shouldn’t it be sent out by the leader of the Democratic Party of Illinois and not the Secretary of State?
Heh heh
- Anonymous - Friday, Oct 7, 16 @ 12:35 pm:
– Could you imagine if this happened in a swing state like Florida….–
Don’t have to imagine about voting problems in Florida. We all lived it.
- I know the facts - Friday, Oct 7, 16 @ 12:59 pm:
That type of envelope is called an “inline” envelope. Printers and mail firms use inline because it allows them to print every component of a mailing (outer envelope, return envelope, letter, form instructions) from one roll of paper. In a large run of 50,000+ packages, this can save a significant amount of money because it means the printer doesn’t have to stop the press and swap out different sized paper. Also, over years and years of experiments with different formats for registration and VBM mailings, results have shown that people are MOST likely to respond to mailings sent in an inline format (frankly, folding a paper in half isn’t that hard). Also, the USPS definitely processes these returns. The USPS works closely with mail firms on mailings of this volume because they profit from the postage and it’s in their best interest for everything to go smoothly.
- BucktownDem - Friday, Oct 7, 16 @ 1:00 pm:
Isn’t that the same size and type of mailing that was utilized in 2014? I remember it being like that 2yr ago. Worked well enough to get Mike Frerichs over the finish line in the end. If folks are motivated to vote, they’ll still send it back in folded. And no way can that not be pressed down enough to still get processed. You’re sending back a single sheet that will get smashed down along the way to the processing center.
Don’t see the GOP doing anything similar this cycle.
Move along.
- SwingVoter - Friday, Oct 7, 16 @ 1:27 pm:
Bucktown Dem-
I agree this is a non-issue. However, Frerichs was carried over the finish line by his own team running a good campaign and the Libertarian Treasurer candidate staying on the ballot, not by the unsuccessful ‘14 Dem coordinated campaign that merely changed the voting habits of regular voters, causing turnout to be over 200,000 less than 2010.
- blue collar - Friday, Oct 7, 16 @ 1:46 pm:
hope the taxpayers are not paying for the postage
- Rich Miller - Friday, Oct 7, 16 @ 1:48 pm:
===Worked well enough to get Mike Frerichs over the finish line in the end===
Imagine how much better it would’ve worked had the letter actually fit in the envelope.
- Ron Burgundy - Friday, Oct 7, 16 @ 2:26 pm:
“I am not a member of an organized political party. I am a Democrat.” — Will Rogers
- titan - Friday, Oct 7, 16 @ 3:22 pm:
Interesting that they are going to some address in Bloomingdale instead of the county clerk’s office.
The party is going to have to deliver them all.
- Chicago_Downstater - Friday, Oct 7, 16 @ 4:18 pm:
@ Anonymous 12:35 PM
Not gonna lie…I had flashbacks of the hanging chads. *shudder* Only I don’t think this situation would qualify for a recount.
But good lord help us if there’s a need for a recount with only 8 judges and vote tampering conspiracy theories on both sides of the aisle!
- Anonin' - Friday, Oct 7, 16 @ 4:32 pm:
Numbers…131k returned….hmmm…no USPS returns…hmmm