In a nutshell in an overvote the person votes for YES and NO and in an undervote they don't vote for either.

The Gay Marriage thing has passed everywhere it has been put before the voters. NC was the 31st state to pass it. I think we'll be voting to change this and allow gay marriage in the next 20 years, times are a changing like it or not. The younger generations see it as an option and are much more open than the older boomers and folks older than boomers.

The following is from Wikipedia

An overvote occurs when one votes for more than the maximum number of selections allowed in a contest.[1] The result is a spoilt vote which is not included in the final tally.
One example of an overvote would be voting for two candidates in a single race with the instruction "Vote for not more than one." Robert's Rules of Order notes that such votes are illegal: "If he votes for too many candidates for a given office, however, that particular section of the ballot is illegal, because it is not possible for the tellers to determine for whom the member desired to vote."[2]
Undervotes combined with overvotes (known as residual votes) can be an academic indicator in evaluating the accuracy of a voting system when recording voter intent.[3]
While an overvote in a plurality voting system is always illegal, in certain other electoral methods including approval voting, this style of voting is valid, and thus invalid overvotes are not possible.[4]
In the corporate world, the term "overvote" describes a situation in which someone votes more proxies than they are authorized to, or for more shares than they hold of record.[5]


An undervote occurs when the number of choices selected by a voter in a contest is less than the maximum number allowed for that contest or when no selection is made for a single choice contest.[1]
In a contested election, an undervote can be construed as active voter disaffection - a voter engaged enough to cast a vote without the willingness to give the vote to any candidate.
An undervote can be intentional for purposes including protest votes, tactical voting or abstention. Alternately undervotes can be unintentional and caused by many factors including poor ballot design.
Undervotes combined with overvotes (known as residual votes) can be an academic indicator in evaluating the accuracy of a voting system when recording voter intent.[2]

Now that's interesting.

In PA neither the old flip switch nor the new computer machines will allow for over votes. Under votes, yes. But I try to avoid those...if I can't decide between candidates I'll write my own name in.

I voted in PA and VA and used the machines. In my part of NC we use a paper ballot like a standardized test at school. One big advantage to the paper ballot we use is you're not stuck in line waiting for the few machines in your precinct. Once you get your ballot all you need is a pen to mark the ballot. When you're done you put it into the scanner and go. One scanner can handle even the busiest polling place. My last election in VA for the 1992 Presidential election I waited about 30 minutes to vote in the morning, at night the line was 90 minutes long. They used the old manual voting booth/machine. The paper ballot will allow overvotes and undervotes. Though I think the scanners can reject an overvoted ballot, you take it back to the table and get a new ballot and they mark your original ballot as spoiled. Undervotes don't cause a problem. On some of the down ballot votes you really have to dig to figure out who to vote for, I can't get too excited about "recorder of deeds."


I took my oldest to the polls yesterday, his first vote. He's 17.5 and was able to vote on everything except the marriage amendment since he'll be 18 on election day. The marriage amendment was a final so he couldn't vote on that.

We use mail-in ballots here and that is just great for me. In SoCA we applied for permanent absentee ballots and that worked great for us there as well. I highly recommend that method; its got to save money, and if they check who they mail the ballots to, it should be the best way to avoid fraud.

As to the NC vote on marriage, I applaud them. CA voted for such an amendment but the politically oriented Appellate court decided to void it. It has now been sent to the US Supreme Court. How the biology of the matter will change over time is amusing if anything. If God wanted us to be able to select our sex, he would have made provisions for that.

God has nothing to do with it, what a cop out for justifying discrimination. Oh, that's right, you're a paying member of known hate groups. Duh

Be nice Dora, Bob is old enough to be a great grandfather. It is a generational thing.

I don't care for mail-in ballots. I could easily change my mind after I mark the ballot. You never know what "dirt" will suddenly come up about a candidate.

God doesn't exist. And if he did, he wouldn't want you speaking for him.



In other news, this is an interesting image. Can you guess how the most educated VS least educated counties in NC voted?




And one final word. Why the [censored] are we putting questions of civil rights to a vote? Your country has a constitution for a reason. The spirit of that document is, first and foremost, to protect individual rights. We don't vote to give people the rights that are due to them. Oh, women want to vote? Well, before we do that, let's take a vote on it and see if we can give women the vote.

The way the issue is being approached is ridiculous. It's as ridiculous as the interracial issue was in the 50s and 60s.

Stop being hateful, ignorant bigots. Just stop it, it's disgusting. We are talking about human beings. I'm so thankful I live in a country that realized that fact 7 years ago. And I'm not even gay, I just see the harm that is being done to good people and I can't stand it.

Besides that...how do they determine it was "YOU" that filled it out?

There is a provision locally for changing your ballot after mailing it in, but I'm not sure how they would easily find it. Your name and signature are on the security envelope, true, but they would have to locate it in the ballot box.

I guess there is no perfect system, but this comes close. No hanging chads here.

How do they determine if YOU filed it? They have you sign the outside of the security envelope and they can check that with your signature of record. Much more secure than someone walking in off the street and saying they are YOU. And the feds are balking at having to produce a photo ID.