Voting Myths
If I don't vote in an election, is my registration invalidated?
The rules are that, and I suppose that every state has their own rules, if you miss two federal elections or big statewide elections, which are every four years, if you miss them you're not removed from the voting rolls. What happens is they send you a card to see if you're still at the address. If somebody sends that card and says no longer at this address, they put you in what they call an inactive file. That doesn't mean you're not on the rolls, it means you're inactive. It they will not send you your sample ballot, but you can still show up at the polls and vote and say "oh, yeah, I'm still here." But there's a check. You have to miss two big elections to even get that check postcard out.
Will my ballot be invalidated if I don't vote for every office?
No of course not. And this is one of the big myths because people think they have to vote for everything. They think for some reason if they don't vote for every candidate that's on there and every ballot measures it won't count. That's just not true. Even if you vote on only one thing it will count.
Will my vote be counted if I don't register with a party?
There's a lot of candidates that are non-partisan, and you can vote on those candidates, and you can vote on all of the ballot measures, and the judges, and the state-wide candidates, that are not political candidates. And of course, you can vote in the general election, where you can vote on any political party. It's only in the primary that you can't vote for party candidates.
Is it true that you can't win an election by just one vote?
No, of course you can. Fifty percent plus one is a majority, and most elections are majority elections. Now there are some elections that require a two-thirds vote, like tax issues; certain elections have different percentages are needed to win. But most elections are a simple majority election. So of course one vote could make one big difference.
Is it true the government can track who I vote for?
No. I don't know of any way, any way they can. The ballot is really secret. There's no way that they can find out who you really vote for. You can say it but they can't prove it.
Does voting mean I'll have to serve on a jury?
When you ask people why they don't register to vote, this is probably the number one myth because lots of people don't register to vote 'cause they think they'll be called for jury. I can't say for other states but here in California you can be called for jury duty from your driver's license. If you drive you can be called from that. So not registering to vote does not say that you won't be called for jury duty.
Is it true that I can't vote if I'm living abroad?
Oh no, there's specific rules to vote, and it's sort of complicated and it's not easy, but citizens living abroad can vote. What's really a big issue now, since we have so many soldiers in Iraq, is allowing them to vote. So we have in L.A. County. Nobody else is allowed the fax they're ballot in, but soldiers in active duty can actually fax their ballots in on Election Day, and they will count.
Is it true that absentee ballots aren't really counted?
Oh, that's not true at all. Absentee ballots are just like any other ballot, they are counted. Maybe they're not counted on election night because we have to do all the checking, if the ballot is signed, the envelope is signed and it's signed with the right signature and everything, but it eventually will get counted.
