My wife and I mailed our ballots in Tuesday 10/31. We would have make it earlier, but I procrastinated with completed and sealed ballots sitting on my desk for a couple of days -- no good excuse, but the reminders to spare the GOTC callers (and ourselves) reminder calls goosed me into action.

I like vote-by-mail (I had voted by absentee for years before vote-by-mail became the law of the land). Plenty of time to consider, research, inquire of friends, and mark the ballot very carefully without concerns about antsy folks waiting in line behind me.

The paper vote-by-mail ballots provide an excellent paper trail -- a good compromise between the speed and accuracy of electronic vote counting and the safety of a paper backup.

Vote-by-mail does make GOTV a considerably different proposition than traditional election date voting.

I do think that Oregon's system of requiring ballots to be returned to county election offices by 8:00 pm on election day is superior to Washington's allowing election day postmarked ballots to be counted. That system is more confusing, more susceptible to fraud, and drives candidates and campaign workers nearly crazy.

Oops, that was supposed to be "GOTV".

DPO is only about 1 day behind the curve on returned ballots so GOTV isn't too badly affected by our VBM system. If I wanted to go look, I could tell how many county votes were in and know who has/hasn't. Don't ask, I can't tell. Ask SOS.

I like the relaxed version of voting, I like the paper trail, I like not being in line, I like not have to try to make time on a work day. I'd like to kick Waldenbush's ass for his vote to screw it up.

Now, Doretta, you wouldn't happen to have the shenanigans of any judicial candidates in mind as you write that, would you?

My wife used to vote in private election booth.

Now we get impersonal and dangerous letter in the mail.

I like to open her mail-vote-ballot and yell "COM'ERE!!" in my flannel shirt.

Sometimes she hides, but when I catch her she votes like me.

Vote by mail = two votes for Borat

No more secret ballots = stronger family values

I'd like to separate the issue of vote ONLY by mail from the issue of liberal use of absentee ballots. I'd really like to see a system where everyone registered gets sent a ballot, but where there are also enough polls open to let people who prefer to vote in person do that. Failing that, there should at least be a more liberal system of absentee balloting in the states. This should actually be a plank for us. Most people don't know how difficult it is to get an absentee ballot some places. For instance, since my wife is on active duty with the Air Force, we live in Texas for the next few months. To get an absentee ballot when I'm out of town for my Guard duty, I have to go down to the elections office before each election and sign a document saying that my military duty prevents me from being present. They've had two or three elections a year (lots of municipal elections) since I've been here, and I'm on duty an average of 120-180 days a year, making it a serious inconvenience to vote. Ironically, you'd think that they'd (meaning the Rs) want my demographic to vote, since we vote about 65% of the time for them. (I would be the notable exception.)

I like vote by mail. I also liked vote-election-day-at-polling-places. I could be persuaded that vote-by-mail should be abandoned if fraud was proven to be prevalent.

The comment about "secret ballots" reminded me that my father, when he receives calls from pollsters asking him, "If the election were held tomorrow, how would you vote ....." responds

"If the election were held tomorrow, I would vote via the secret ballot system."

Heh.

I like filling out my ballot at the kitchen table, but I used to do that anyway with the sample ballots. I don't think that VBM is quite as corruptable as electronic voting, but I still don't trust it. If coersed votes haven't been a problem yet (and how would we know?), that doesn't mean they won't be in the future. Voting days should be national holidays.

Oh yeah, and I miss the cookies and the old girls who ran our polling place.

Even though I have excepted vbm as the system of voting in Oregon and sent in my ballot the day I received it, I would rather vote in a polling booth at my local precinct. I remain attached to the symbolism of going to the polls, the sense of community of standing in line with my neighbors, and feeling like I have truly participated in the democratic process. Yes, this is idealistic and I do understand why people like vbm (it eliminates many of the costs of voting).

The problem I have w/ VBM is that it does not increase turn-out. Certainly, it does make it easier vote, but it does not make people want to vote. Those same people who did not go to the polls are not going to take the time to vote at home. As motor voter taught us, systemic changes do not increase voter turn-out, turn-out only increases when people believe that their vote matters or have a tangible stake in the election.

Turn-out in Oregon has been strong in the last general elections not because of VBM, but because of the importance that Oregon has played as a swing state in the Presidential Election and closing of the gap between urban and rural voters in the state. THe national attention focused on Oregon, the increase in candidate appearences, and the increase in retail campaigning and get-out-the-vote efforts by the parties. Oregonians recognized that there one vote does matter and would have impact on the election.

Do not misunderstand my opposition to vbm, I believe in any efforts to remove barriers to voting, but those efforts must go hand-in-hand increasing voter awareness and education.

Given the number of initiatives and basically invisible offices, mostly judgeships, we have to vote on each election, I'd need to show up at the ballot box with a couple pages of voting crib sheets unless I wanted to hog a booth for an hour or two. I just can't imagine going back to voting at polls.

Zak, Didn't you get sample ballots?

I used to get asked often how the vote by mail in Oregon was working and I would always reply, "We sure do it better then Florida." Now I could say we do it better then Florida, Texas, New Mexico, Ohio and all the other places where voter suppression and fraud are on going problems.

Oregon's Vote By Mail Rocks and the rest of the Country should follow our lead.

In answer to Borat, I have advised people in domestic abuse situations (both male and female) to go in person (after the fact) when you feel it is safe, to the county elections office and make a spoiled ballot request and vote in complete privacy the way you want. For some of these people voting this way has been the only way they could vote as they were not being allowed to vote (or where being punished if they did) when they went to a polling place. It is still not perfect but closer then any other system Americans have found for voting.