What is required at the polling place in your state? Verification and signature in a poll book? Signing an affidavit? Stating your name and address?

Has anyone had themselves, friends or family, or acquaintances show up to vote just to be told they already have?

***I'll create a list here, of various verification methods, as members respond.***

1. Signature comparison and verification after name and address given by voter and verified in registry. Approved by Republican and Democrat observers.
2. Voter states their name, which is found in the registry that also contains their address; voter is asked to confirm information and sign.
3. Voter states their name. The name is confirmed on, and struck from, the registry.
4. Voter ID card (no photo) or utility bills checked against registry. Voter also signs a statement declaring they are who they say, and they're not cheating.
5. Voter states name. Poll worker looks them up in registry and asks voter what their address is. Worker confirms voter's statement matches registry.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: KSGM,

I live in upstate New York in a strongly conservative rural county.
I don't know anyone, and haven't heard of anyone being told they have already voted.
Downstate and/or the Five Boroughs, and Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, Utica, Albany, it could have a different story. I haven't seen anything on the news.
It's the same deal in most States, the rats live in the big cities.

We choose to vote in person on Election Day.
Our County voted for President/Vice President as follows: Trump/Vance 63.18%, Harris/Walz 36.01%, Write-in/Other 0.81%, which is somewhat more conservative than the national average.

When you check in at the polling place, you give them your full name and mailing address. I told them my middle name initial. They asked me what my middle name was.
The polling staff looks up your provided info on a modest sized tablet.
When they have verified, against the local Election Commission database, they hand you a smaller tablet so you can sign your name.
They compare your signed name with what the local Election Commission has on file for a signature.
Both the Republican & Democrat Election observers have to agree that what you signed on the tablet matches what is on file for a signature when you registered to vote.

Then if your signature comparison passes muster, they hand you a paper ballot.
After you fill out a paper ballot to your own personal satisfaction, you the voter feed the paper ballot into an electronic tabulating machine.
The electronic tabulation machine signifies to the voter that it successfully read the paper ballot by showing the voter a green check mark on a small display, along with the words.
The paper ballots are retained to do a comparison against the electronic tabulation, prior to the Election Commission certifying any results.
It took me less than five minutes for the entire process.

New York doesn't require voter ID for in-person voting, but if your signature doesn't match what the local Election Commission has on file for a signature, you will not be handed a paper ballot.

Excellent. Thank you for your contribution, cee_Kamp.

I live in Georgia, and I am very curious about the voting process in states that don't have ID requirements.

I am in San Diego, CA and during the 2016 election I was chastised by a poll worker for trying to campaign for a candidate.

What did I do you might ask?

I was rather vocal for the worker to check my ID (CA driver's license) and verify it was me signing to vote.

In reality what happens is, you show up, give a name, the poll worker finds it on a list, asks if this is you (your address is there too), and you sign.

After filling out your ballot, it is dropped in a box mixed with all the others.

Eventually your signature is supposed to be verified but regardless of that verification, your ballot is lost amongst the thousand and will be counted.

One year I saw my daughter had voted and signed her name - she was on vacation in Belgium at the time. I noted this to the poll worker and in not so many words, was politely told to go pound sand.

What is this polling station you are talking about?

Mail in ballots here…

Photo ID, name/address found on the ledger and signature required (this is not cross-checked at the time, but I assume it would be if ever necessary), paper ballot filled out and dropped in the locked box. I don't know for sure, but I assume that the ballots are read with OMR scanners. Our results are always available by the 10 o'clock news.

Absolutely nothing. Just give a name and you're good to go. My neighbor's wife passed away in Oct, 2008. I told my wife she could go to the polls and just give our neighbor's name and she could vote in her place. (She didn't, of course)

Okay; things are getting progressively looser.

So far it seems that only whatever rural New York county cee_Kamp is in actually verifies anything.

Synthplayer, they presumably check the name you state against the registry, right? You did imply as much in suggesting that you knew of what would be an unused slot. Do you officiate with a signature that you are who you're saying you are?

Gustofer, are you in a state that requires an ID?

Yes - they did verify against the registry and draw a line through my name. I guess that's one thing - it guarantees a person can only vote once. This year I had to sign for the first time. However, they didn't verify my signature.

I live in a suburb of Rochester, New York and echo exactly what cee_Kamp posted about the voting process. I voted early, in person. Unlike cee_Kamp, my county voted in favor of Kackles.

Alaska is one.

You can show ID, you are supposed to prove identity in some way. You can show your voter ID card, which required a photo ID to get...but doesn't have a photo on it. You can show utility bills in your name, and they'll use that to bump against the voter registration. Again...no photo ID required.

In other words in Alaska, it's really easy to cheat...as long as no one else shows up to also vote. They required that I attest to a statement that I wasn't cheating and was who I claimed to be....but again, just a signature, no photo ID required.

Without much surprise....cheating is rampant in our state.

In Maryland, they ask your name. Look it up and ask for your address. No ID no proof it's you.

I mean, I guess it's safe because no one could ever figure out someone's name and address. I will not even get into mail-in voting.

Voted in CA from age 18 to 46 years old. Never was asked to show ID once. And I voted in every election I was eligible starting with 1992 presidential. Registered in one county at 18 and registered in another county at about 30. Last several years I lived there i would just pull it out at the church hall voting precinct and the poll workers would just say oh that’s not necessary. The voter rolls were by street and I’d see the names of my neighbors and if they had signed to vote that day or note. I never voted by mail in these years. Only in person. Only asked to sign my name on the voter roll, I assumed held for x years by the county by statute.

In FL In my county, my ID is scrutinised at the poll and I even got a letter a few months after moving here from county voting commissioner asking me to re-sign my registration because my sloppy signature wasn’t close enough to the signature on file with my driver license !

Louisiana requires a photo ID or in lieu of you must sign an affidavit at the polling place .

Show your driver's license. Sign a book. I don't think they check the signatures as a matter of routine.

I don't know what people without a DL do.

quote:

Originally posted by KSGM:
Gustofer, are you in a state that requires an ID?

I don't honestly know what the law says, but every time I've ever voted I've been asked for it.

VA is an affidavit. Several reports of people finding out their votes had already been cast last week. Normal? Could be....doesn't seem to get much attention and not sure what election officials do when people are forced to fill out a provisional ballot and file a complaint here.

It seems VA will accept many forms of ID. The top of the list is OK, but it gets more relaxed as you descend. They'll ultimately accept a utility bill. Not surprising that people arrive to find their vote has been cast last week.

LA will accept state-issued IDs or a "generally recognized" picture ID containing the name and signature of the voter. Even discounting the vagueness of that generally recognized ID, it seems counterintuitive to "require" a photo ID, but ultimately accept an affidavit.

This is a pretty brief-yet-comprehensive page on voter fraud, complete with examples of cases.

https://www.heritage.org/elect...explains/voter-fraud

It seems, to me, that buying votes, ineligible voting, and altering the vote count are the most relevant and have the most potential for large gains. In-person voter fraud is, of course, very possible, but the manpower and effort required to tip the scales in a big way makes it seem impractical, when compared to the aforementioned alternative methods.

Fraudulent use of absentee ballots is a potential big player, when we take into account the fact that the registries are not purged of deceased voters.

The overwhelming majority of the example cases are from city and county-level elections. These get little or no jail time, when the perpetrator (or perpetrators) is caught.

Interestingly, the precedent case with the most jail time (eight years) was a non-citizen voting in a general election and a primary runoff in 2012 and 2014.

My experience is the same as cee_Kamp‘s.