Working over at the Elections Department (Contra Costa County, CA), I get a chance to hear some of the misconceptions people have about their ballots and what they ― and others ― can or cannot do with them. Here, in my opinion, are the big three.
"I want to change my party affiliation from Republicrat to Democan, because I simply cannot see voting for the cowardly weasel my party nominated for president, and as long as I'm a Republicrat I can't vote for his opponent in the election."
In any election held in November (because primaries are always held earlier ... and earlier ... and earlier...) you can vote for anybody you want to on the ballot that is given to you (and everybody else). Your party plays no role in this. Don't let anybody tell you otherwise.
"I like Arnold Schwarzenegger well enough, even if as governor he just seems to be Gray Davis on steroids, but I really have no opinion one way or the other on Proposition 1984, 'Shall April 1 be declared Conan the Satrap Day in California?' But if I don't vote one way or the other on this proposition, my entire ballot will be declared invalid!"
You can vote, or not vote, for any office or measure on the ballot; whether or not you vote will have no effect on anything else you do on the ballot. Your ballot will always be counted ― even those parts that, since you didn't vote on them, count for nothing.
"I got an absentee ballot, but I heard that absentee ballots are never counted unless the election is really close. So maybe I'll throw it away and go to my polling place to vote."
There may be polities here and there in this country where absentee ballots are not counted ― though I suspect this is more likely to happen when the race is close than when it is not ― but this is more likely to be the rare (and illegal) exception than the norm. Contra Costa County, for instance, spends lots and lots of dollars and man hours to prepare absentee ballots so that they will be ready to count right along with the ballots that come from the polling places. (Actually, they could be counted earlier, though I don't think that's done.) By the time it is known whether the race is going to be close or not, the absentee ballot number will already have been included.
There are enough forces in this country already trying to convince you not to let your ballot count. Don't let them get away with it. Don't fall for pernicious urban legends.
I once heard a discussion on the radio about whether there should a test that people would have to pass to prove their competence to vote. One of the guests argued that there should indeed be a test; the one that already exists: If you're competent to fill out a voter registration form, you're competent to vote. That made sense to me then, and still does now, but when I read this entry, I couldn't help but think of Heinlein's solve-a-quadratic-equation idea.
--
Aaron
The last of these misconceptions is the most common one ― I heard it day before yesterday from two couples who came in from a "mail-voting precinct" to complain about their treatment. Our director of polling places showed me a transcript, last year, of an episode of "Hardball" in which two knowledgeable (quote-unquote) pundits were happily assuring each other of the unassailable "fact" that absentee ballots simply aren't counted except in tight elections.
And at first sight, this makes a lot of theoretical sense, particularly fiscally. If you already know how the race is going to go and the number of absentee ballots returned is such that they will make no difference to the outcome, why not simply dump them into a big bonfire or landfill? (After doing the requisite Environmental Impact Report, of course.)
But the problem with this is that you never know how the race is going to go until after you've spent all the time and money in getting those absentee ballots ready to count; so you wouldn't really be saving anything by not counting them. (And, in fact, since they're actually counted at the same time as the ballots that come in from the polling places, you don't really have the vaguest idea whether you need them or not until after you've actually counted them.)