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This happened in Roanoke, which is left leaning. Republicans are going all out to cheat in this election.
Edit: Here is the law on tampering with ballots in Virginia. Class 5 felony
https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title24.2/chapter10/section24.2-1009/
I am going to be voting in person. Hopefully Harris will win and when the Trumpers try to riot again the national guard is harsh.
So somebody reported this to the State election board and told all the news agencies, right?
My friend reported it to the election board, but doesn’t want to report it to the news. I can’t make him and I don’t live in Virginia. If anyone wants to share this, my friend nor I will be opposed.
News tip submission forms for Roanoke, Virginia:
@UnpopularCrow, since you have more information about this than the rest of us, would you mind submitting the details to these news organizations?
The news source of this post could not be identified. Please check the source yourself. Media Bias Fact Check | bot support
This is a felony, and can likely be traced back to the election helper who did it.
Report it!
My friend is reporting it.
I don't usually recommend this but also post on Reddit and X. This needs to get out there.
I don’t have an account on either. I use to have one on Reddit, but you know how that went over the past 16 months. Never had an account on twitter. Feel free to post this yourself if you have an account on either.
Can someone explain this to a non US person please? You sign your votes?
I could be mistaken, but most places check your signature against the voter roll. If your signature doesn't match, then they'll ask for an ID. At least that's how it was where I volunteered in 2020. This is done before you get your ballot. You don't actually sign the ballot itself.
For mail in balloting at least in my state you sign the return envelope NOT the ballot itself.
In Illinois they give you two, well 3 technically. The one everything comes in, the one you put the ballot in, and the one you put the ballot envelope in. So the signature is not on the outside or on the ballot itself.
In order for a mail in ballot to be valid, the person must sign the envelope.
For mail-ins, yeah, you sign it to do the final "I authorize this document to be my vote".
If you don't authorize it, it's not legally your vote.
NY requires you to also sign the registration book when you vote in person.
There's a difference, signing the book is done before you vote in person in ny, and is not associated with your ballot or who you voted for. So in person there's no way to know who you voted for.
For mail-in, you don’t sign the ballot itself. You sign the envelope, which is used to validate / track who voted, but is then separated from the actual ballot before counting so there’s no way to track who you voted for.
I've always had to sign my vote by mail ballot envelope in CA. They keep a signature on file from when you last registered to absentee (not vote at your polling place) vote and compare the two to see if someone else is trying to vote in your name.
something you have to remember about the US is that while it's a democracy, all the democratic practices were started in the 1800s, often with explicit intention to negate the votes of some discriminated group
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.
Excellent point. I alerted my friend to your post. I don’t have the envelope, they just sent me the picture. They go to bed early but I’ll update you in the morning.
Could be old instructions for witness signatures vs anything malicious. Be sure this is a real issue first. Last time they sent out conflicting instructions which was worse. But yes, report it to be safe.
Joan Porte, vice president of the Virginia League of Women Voters and an Arlington resident, said she was furious when she saw the error on the envelope, which could have been solved, she said, by crossing it out with a marker.
Thanks for this information. I alerted my friend. I’ll update the post if you are correct.