This is 2012. A lot of sensitive things are done over the web - banking for example. If it can save me a trip in the car or talking to some clerk somewhere, you can bet I'll use it.

I know, right. I hate that our government pretends like it's the 21st century. I totally wish I could take off work and drive somewhere and wait in line and watch a bunch of public employees push paper all day. Why is MD giving me a different option?!? Efficiency is the worst. BOOO MARYLAND. BOO TECHNOLOGY.

Voter fraud, maybe. But all that needs to be done to address that is show a valid picture ID along with you voter ID when you go to vote.

I'd agree with you about better things to do other then stand in line or drive to get a form, but! This only needs to be done once. I registered in high school. Done, never had to do anything but vote. No line or wait. Don't try to make it sound like registering to vote is arduious, it is not.

RW Willy, you have to show your face at those places. Ahem (PC) undocumented register protection

ATC That's a load of gibberish. Are you posting in English???

"This only needs to be done once. I registered in high school. Done, never had to do anything but vote. No line or wait. Don't try to make it sound like registering to vote is arduious, it is not."

RW Willy, I'd imagine 95% of the site's use will be changes of address w/a few changes in party affiliation sprinkled in, not initial registrations.

Oh my! I cannot believe I am about to type this but here goes ... jag if you are serious about showing a valid photo ID when you go to vote then I believe we actually agree on something.

I know for a fact that vote fraud is alive and well here in Maryland and the only way to ever stop it from happening is to have a voter ID law as they are passing in several other states or as those that already exist in many states.

I find it interesting how it is always Democrats that fight against Voter ID laws under the guise that it is voter suppression. They claim lower income individuals do not have the resources or ability to go out and acquire a government issued ID card. They seem to ignore the fact that it is a law in Maryland, as well as most states in the US, for anyone over 18 must possess either a drivers license or state issued ID (age of majority) card. Democrats are always more than willing to shuttle voters to the polls on election day so why don't they offer the same service to these alleged individuals unable to obtain an ID card.

Sorry JustaBill, in person voter fraud happened in 1 out of 15,000,000 votes cast. So why pass a law to require voter ID. Those are facts.

http://votingrights.news21.com/

FIFA ... Then can you please explain to me how my DEAD father who died in 1991 as a registered Republican changed his voter registration to Democrat in 1992 and has been a 4x4 voter in every election cycle since then? Can you also explain to me why the Montgomery County BOE says they cannot remove him from the voter roll because they cannot prove this is not my dead father?

Then can you also explain to me how a voting precinct can have more than a 100% voter turnout year after year after year and no one seems to care? Voter fraud is real. Denial is ignorance.

BUT, regardless of the facts the real issue is why not have a Voter ID Law when it is already the law to possess an ID and you must show an ID to do far less important things in everyday life.

JAB, urban legends, go read real research.

http://votingrights.news21.com/

My father being dead is an urban legend? Eff You!

I don't think that they are contemplating online VOTING, just online registration. But we should ALL be concerned about the lack of a paper trail with the current touchscreen voting machines Maryland is using.

You have BGEhrlich, Kristin Cox and Jack Abramoff to blame for that. Abramoff was a lobbyist for Diebold and got his bought and paid for cronies to purchase the machines.

Steve, you just love posting things that are so perversely false. First of all it was the Democrat led General Assembly that approved the purchase of the electronic voting machines in 2001 and Governor Ehrlich took office in 2002. It was also the then Democrat appointed State Elections Board that decided a voter receipt based paper trail was not ready to be implemented and then in 2007 they reaffirmed that one was not needed. Oh and it is O'Malley who is in bed with BGE not Ehrlich. Ehrlich was the one who actually opposed the BGE rate hikes in 2006. All O'Malley did was make empty campaign promises and then not only let BGE raise their rates in 2007 but he has let them raise them a few more times since then as well.

But why let little things like Facts and the Truth get in the way of your keyboard warrior lies.

FIFA..you are incorrect. I know people who are working for "Election Integrity Maryland" and are finding all sorts of garbage. We have had motor Voter where illegal aliens were TOLD by the MVA to register democrat. The MVA people have spoken out about it. There were bus loads of illegal aliens coming into the MVA's ..we have pictures. CASA de Maryland registers illegal aliens to vote- they have been thrown off of jury pools! Illegal aliens have been found with voter registration cards in Spanish on their persons! Ilegal aliens have been found working polls in PG county. I don't need to go on any further. You are in denial. Baltimore City has had dead people voting for 100 years now. Their addresses are from the cemetaries.

FIFI is just to ignorant and dumb to see fraud and has the mind of a 5 year old.

Wow! It IS easy to be him....I may have to keep this up.

Sorry Judy, I disagree with you completely. In Pennsylvania, the legislature there just passed a voter ID law and stated that there has not a single prosecution of a voter illegally voting. Not one. A solution looking for a problem.

If you think it through for a second, why would anyone take a chance of going to jail for a single vote. You would be nuts to do so. If it was a grand conspiracy of thousands of votes it would be impossible to keep secret. You would get caught.

I am much more concerned about the integrity of the electronic vote totals. Without a paper trail it would be much easier to have a conspiracy to alter vote totals and no one would know.

LOL "Election Integrity Maryland" What a joke! They are only combing the voter records looking for people with Hispanic surnames. Bigotry at it's finest!

Here is more on the "Election Integrity Maryland" clowns/clownettes

http://www.npr.org/2012/03/13/148518795/tea-party-spawns-new-effort-against-voter-fraud

@Judy.Bach Balto Coordinator HSM an Acorn process no one knew about that? so FIFA it is possible SHE IS CORRECT !!! CASA de Maryland registers illegal aliens to vote and they live by Maryland gov funded housing Yea FREE our tax dollars now how do you think there going to vote? living free on our tax dollar drink beer and trow the cans all over the place .Judy is right about MVA after they changed the law 1-2 yrs ago MVA is not crowded shoulder to shoulder any more, So a new tactic has to be employed. There is so much more we don't know about you see something is not correct and then you see comments as Judy it all adds up you get a group and each person knows one fact common sense puts it all together by witnesses .

Yes, find me something that changed an election. It doesn't exist. "Felons" voting doesn't mean they intended to commit fraud. It means voter registration did not cross check databases. As an aside, I am of the opinion, if you served you sentence in full you should be able to vote anyway.

3. Eric Holder’s Justice Department tacitly supports voter intimidation tactics, sues states and backs private lawsuits, and resists reform as “voter suppression.”
4. Leftist echo chamber discredits allegations of vote fraud, supports “suppression” theme, and promotes advantageous legislation.
The ultimate goal is a systematized, taxpayer-funded voting machinery that will guarantee maximum participation from the Left’s voting demographic while undermining the ability to manage elections and prevent fraud."
Barack Obama established his organizing bona fides with Project Vote in 1992, when he registered 150,000 Illinois voters.

Project Vote was created and run for years by Zach Polett, who bragged that he trained Barack Obama in 1992 and said of Obama, “ACORN produces leaders.” Polett is listed in Manta.com as president of Voting for America, one of Project Vote’s former names, although his name is not on Project Vote’s website. Calls to that listing roll into a voice mail identifying the organizations as “CSI.” Polett’s extension is #3. CSI is the acronym for Citizens Services Inc., another supposedly defunct ACORN group that was used to hide over $800,000 paid by candidate Obama to ACORN in 2008.

This kind of duplicitous activity reflects a deliberate methodology. ACORN is a criminal organization."

The Cloward Piven Strategy

ACORN is the face of vote fraud, but its intellectual foundation is the Cloward Piven Strategy. Sociology professors Richard Cloward (Columbia University) and Frances Fox Piven (CUNY) were founding members of Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). Cloward died in 2001 but Piven lives on.

In 1966 Cloward and Piven penned an article for The Nation magazine titled “The Weight of the Poor: A Strategy to End Poverty.” They posited that if the poor were organized into street armies to demand all welfare benefits available to them, they could overwhelm and crash the system.

It became known as the “Cloward-Piven Strategy,” and is credited with expanding welfare rolls 151 percent between 1965 and 1974 and bringing New York City to the brink of bankruptcy in 1975.

LOL Acorn! They disbanded 2 years ago.

Voter fraud is as old as political elections. The 1960 presidential election was a primo example. "The Chicago Tribune wrote that "the election of November 8, 1960 was characterized by such gross and palpable fraud as to justify the conclusion that [Nixon] was deprived of victory."Had Nixon won both states (Texas and Illinois where massive fraud occurred in Kennedy's favor), he would have ended up with exactly 270 electoral votes and the presidency, with or without a victory in the popular vote." Fraud at the highest level changing an election. Keep dreaming that it doesn't exist.

Poor boy said fraud did not exist now he changes the goal posts? Poor little boy. The fraud case in Troy New York did change the results if you ever could learn to read at a 4th grade level. Can I post pictures to make it easier for you?

"Copy and paste" THE first comment from one who has just been shown to be an idiot! Am I supposed to re-type those stories for you? Is that what you want? Shrink back into your sphincter.

You are a vulgar little maggot it appears.

Poor wittle boy FIFI got his sensitive feewings hurt! Ohhh poor wittle bully. Can dish it but can't take it wittle bully?

No feelings hurt here. But you are grimy, squalid, nasty and profane.

Ohhh look! FIFI not only questions his own manhood he learned to use a thesaurus for more name calling. Did mommy give you a gold star FIFI? Your problem may be a loaded diaper. Get mommy to change you FIFI.

Josephine, you are unreservedly pathetic, starved for attention, and lost in a land that reality forgot

Ohhh poor willte FIFI. I see you are learning more new words. Another Gold star on your pinhead from mommy and a Popsicle for wunch?

Patch -- I'd like to respectfully request that you start monitoring the comments more closely and enforcing your TOS more strictly. The comments on any even remotely political article seem to quickly turn to name-calling, personal attacks, and completely off-topic arguments (from BOTH sides). In short, the comments sections are basically a train wreck and I guarantee it's scaring away readers and potential commenters who are looking for a more rational discussion of the issues raised in your articles.

Great points DawnP. I heartily agree. I decided to fight fire with fire, can't beat em join em, fight the bully with his own medicine instead of being shut down and when those un-named decide to grow the hell up, I will then have no further comments like those that ruin this site.

Dawn, I have to agree with you. I enjoy reading various Patch comments but the name calling has got to stop. I feel like I am on a school yard with a bunch of bullies! Please Patch commentors. could you please stick to the topic of the article and leave out the derogatory comments?

Please avoid the name calling. There's a good discussion going here, but resorting to names not only undercuts your argument and erodes the civility of the discourse, but it also violates the spirit of our Terms of Use.
You can find our Terms of Use here: http://rockville.patch.com/terms
Please especially note two specific parts of the TOU: First, the paragraph just below the first bullet points that reads: "Instead of trying to memorize all that, you might boil it down to three main principles: 'Keep it clean,' 'Don’t try to trick people,' and 'Treat others as you’d like to be treated.'"
Second, a note on how we monitor the site: "We do our best to keep tabs on what is posted on the site, however Patch is under no obligation to screen or monitor Content, but may review Content from time to time at its sole discretion to determine compliance with the Patch Terms of Use. Patch will make all determinations as to what Content is appropriate at its sole discretion. We may include, edit or remove any Content at any time without notice."

RW, the other side of the argument is noted in your last sentence. "I want all elegible persons to vote. Not selected dead or pressured minorities." Evidence is showing that many eligible voters don't have the photo ID being required in many states. Thus you are excluding them for voting or in some cases requiring them to go to significant expense to obtain those ID's. Thus the various lawsuits by the DOJ.

Regarding, "Just because there is no hard evidence of an election being decided by fraud doesn't mean it is a non issue. " I disagree with that statement, I think it is a non-issue. What is interesting is the partisan nature of the argument. One side thinks the ID would help them and vice-versa.

Regarding "malais[e]", I agree. Only 50% vote on a good day.

Hey FIFI, it that ball your make believe friend? Did you paint that self portrait in it with crayons? What a talented child you are! Another Gold Star and lollipop for you.

@RW - here is the latest on voter fraud.

http://votingrights.news21.com/

The main reason that photo ID is not required in most states is because most states charge for an ID card. Requiring an ID card that comes with a fee is tantamount to charging a fee to vote, commonly called a poll tax. Charging a fee to exercise one's Constitutionally guaranteed rights is well, unconstitutional. Most states that have recently passed laws to require photo IDs to vote have changed their policies so picture IDs are free (if the person requesting the ID card asks the fee to be waived), or they issue voter ID cards to voters who request them. Many states require ID to vote, but will accept almost anything with the voter's name and/or address on it (credit cards, bills, paycheck, bank statement, etc)

Most states that demand ID will give them away at no charge to those on any type of government program.

Sorry Frankie, http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20120807/BIZ/208070418/1361/Senators-urge-China-crackdown-on-fake-IDs

that is just for you who has yet to learn to use internet search engines. Here's how, right click and copy a few words and put them in google or your choice and the story will come up for you.

You questioned the source Frank! If you question it, then it your obligation to investigate it. When you can't find the story then you can get your rocks off by calling me a liar and any other of the many names you reserve for those you disagree with. That's how it works Frank.

Why the hell would I post something that could be so easily debunked? I posted the story form as credible a source as any and I hold no responsibility for its content. If you don't do even a preliminary check on things you read from sources like the one above, or as you questioned only my posting it, then you may just believe anything. Hmmm.

Closing shop, have a great weekend.

Unfortunately, I know from personal experience that voting on a provisional ballot does not mean you won't be disenfranchised. I voted on a provisional ballot in the 2004 election, because I didn't (and still don't) trust the paperless Diebold voting machines, and a provisional ballot was the only way there would be a paper record of my vote. Several weeks after the election, I received a letter in the mail from the Elections Board, indicating that my vote (along with all of the other provisional ballots) had not been counted, because statistically, there weren't enough outstanding provisional ballots to affect the outcome. So being able to cast a vote via provisional ballot does not mean that you have a right to have your vote counted.

I did the same Dawn. Have done so since as well. You voted right? If you had clicked the old levers, or then filled in the circles, or now how ever they do it, would that tally have made ANY difference in the outcome if counted?

If one does not bother to vote one should not bellyache about the outcome of that election. You voted and eiter way your vote would not make a difference in this state.
Have a great weekend.