Dan Smith, my colleague at University of Florida, provides this useful guide.
I am no fan of the Oregon law that allows third parties to collect and deliver ballots. But the law is the law, and apparently some election officials and members of law enforcement don’t understand the law.
Fact is, however, this remains legal in Oregon, and the state legislature refuses to change the law because politicians want to have their campaigners collect ballots. I don’t like it, it makes Oregon almost unique, and I’ve been trying to get the law changed. I blogged about it two years ago
I don’t like what the canvassers did in West Linn, but it is legal.
P.S. I don’t want to defend Rep. Julie Parrish who is in hot water over some robocalls questioning voters’ registration status, but the WWeek reference to her Facebook page is inaccurate–she correctly states that third party ballot collection is legal, just in her opinion, the canvassers must have broken the law because:
Come on now…..if the police made them take the ballot back…that should say something to you….I believe the West Linn PD over the House Democrats Spokesperson….
This in from a local blogger. The Gerber/Green reference is to this article about “shaming” and vote mobilization.
This should answer a few reporters’ questions. Courtesy of Michael McDonald’s website. Blank states do not mean no early voting–it means there is no data or insufficient data that I felt comfortable plotting the information.
Courtesy of Jacob Canter, Reed junior and late night Stata learner …
The map was produced using the spmap add-on to Stata.
Democratic Early Voting in Florida
If I did this right using the Ipsos/Reuters “American Mosaic” site, the graphic below shows early voter preferences over the past week. I selected on “registered voters” and “voted in 2012” for the display.
This corresponds pretty well to te trends in support reported by Nate Silver, Real Clear Politics, and others.