Why the nation deserves vote-by-mail
Kari Chisholm
Here in Oregon, we're rightfully proud of our vote-by-mail system. It ensures that every voter - regardless of their work or childcare situation - is able to vote. It gives voters time to consider every issue on their ballot carefully, without time pressure. And no one is subject to long lines or malfunctioning voting machines.
Contrast that to what's going to happen in St. Louis, Missouri, as described by Mark Sumner - blogging at DailyKos as "Devilstower":
Republicans know very well that the turnout in St. Louis (and Kansas City) can swing the outcome of every election in Missouri, so they have a well practiced and time-honored game plan.First, there won't be enough machines. Neighboring counties will have plenty, St. Louis County will be tight, St. Louis City will be woefully short. It's that way every cycle, it'll be that way this time.
Second, Republican poll workers and monitors will be late to arrive. This tactical heel-dragging will help slow the opening of some polling stations, and ensure that those trying to vote before work face frustrations and delays.
Third, Republicans will challenge voters. Not voters of whom they're suspicious, mind you, lots of voters. Particularly older voters who they think seem confused, or voters who already seem steamed about the delays. The goal here is to slow the process as much as possible, so that when voters are coming in to vote after work, the lines are stupendous. This process will continue right up until 7PM, when the polls close.
At that point, there will be thousands of people still in line in the city and county. The local Democratic Party will rush to a judge before the polls close, and get an injunction keeping some polling stations open longer to accommodate the overflow crowds. They'll get the injunction.
The Republicans will be roughly 3.2 seconds behind them, relaying this injunction to an appellate judge. This judge, whether appointed by the Bush administration or the Blunt administration in Missouri, will happily order the polls closed.
Polling places will then be left to interpret these rulings amid a sea of confusion. Close the doors immediately? Let everyone already in line vote but block any more people getting in line? Keep the polls going until they're forcibly shut down? All three options will be exercised, often within a few blocks of each other.
At the end of the night, there will be thousands of St. Louisans who didn't get to vote, Republicans will scream that Democrats were trying to cheat "again," and Kit Bond will deliver a red-faced speech that's slightly less coherent than Sarah Palin on a bender. All of this is as predictable as sunrise.
Sure, there are some reasonable concerns with vote-by-mail. But do they even come close to comparing to this nightmare of voter disenfranchisement?
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connect with blueoregon
Nov 2, '08
Is it too late to reconsider letting the South succeed from the Union?
Nov 2, '08
...Missouri is in the north, guy.
Nov 2, '08
Well, okay, technically it's half-and-half.
Nov 2, '08
Question for those who have lived here longer than I (meaning since the early 90s): Is there any history in Oregon of the sort of hard-core patronage/machine politics that exists in the big cities in the East and Midwest? It's hard to see how the situation described in St. Louis could arise without machine politics, but maybe I'm missing something.
As for vote by mail, I have a sense that the enormous amount of early voting / mail voting /absentee voting in this year's electoral cycle is going to provide a lot of momentum for expanding that sort of stuff. But of course with our federal system, that expansion will occur in a piecemeal, state-by-state fashion. And the same arguments that were made to oppose mail voting in Oregon will be rehashed in every other state....
Nov 2, '08
All you really need to know about the success of vote-by-mail is here at ourvotelive.org.
There are all of 10, count 'em, ten problems reported for the entire state of Oregon. That's 1/6th the problems reported so far in Louisiana, a state about the same size. Only Louisiana hasn't voted yet.
Of those Oregon problems, one is actually a Virginia problem, one is a radio report of a Wisconsin problem and one is totally blank. There's one anecdotal report of prisoners getting absentee ballots, and a few complaints that ballots require more than one stamp to mail back.
That's IT.
On election day, we have a paper trail of every single ballot, random recounts of races and precincts to ensure accuracy, and almost instant returns, since the counting actually starts on Tuesday morning.
No process is ever perfect, but it's hard to imagine a more fair and verifiable election process than we've got here.
The one suggestion I would make to improve vote-by-mail: A secure way for each voter to verify their ballot was received and processed. If, for example, a ballot fails the signature-matching test (as happened to Michael Kinsley because of his Parkinson's disease), it would seem fair to notify that voter of a failed match (or missing signature) and allow them to ensure their vote gets counted.
Nov 2, '08
It is a travesty that the Help America Vote Act failed to mandate a national system with a close relation to Oregon's vote-by-mail process. Why didn't the politicians in Congress get it right? Business as usual and we keep sending this crap back to Washington every election.
Nov 2, '08
The Sunday Oralgronian informs us that we can call our county elections office to ascertain whether our ballot has arrived and been verified. They add that we should "Make that call before or after Election Day. Elections offices will be jammed Tuesday." Somewhat of an understatement, I warrant.
I suspect that, in the unlikely event that a caller is able to get through to an Elections official on Tuesday, the best he or she can expect is a more or less polite suggestion to call back another day.
Nov 2, '08
Maybe in future elections it would be worth the time of organizations who work on voter protection and who have access to the voter file to advertise and offer as a service to voters the ability to look up and see if their ballot has been recorded as having been received.
Nov 2, '08
I agree, the Oregon system is a model. I just talked today to the county clerk (who attends my church), and the systems in place to authenticate ballots, to address mis-marked or damaged ballots, to ensure ballot safety and reliability are incredible. The statewide database of voter registration is second to none. Bill Bradbury is to be commended for what he has done with this.
5:58 p.m.
Nov 2, '08
Maybe in future elections it would be worth the time of organizations who work on voter protection and who have access to the voter file to advertise and offer as a service to voters the ability to look up and see if their ballot has been recorded as having been received.
The Oregon Student Association and Oregon universities have been doing that for students since registration efforts kicked into high gear in September. The SoS has that information available from their website; it is a really simple process and we have had a lot of folks (students and staff both) take advantage of it.
http://oregonvotes.org/other.info/vr.htm
It's part of ORESTAR.
After the last 2 election cycles, there is a definitely less of an assumption that "everything is ok" on the part of voters. They want to know that their registration is intact, without any surprises.
6:15 p.m.
Nov 2, '08
You can check to see if your ballot has been received at http://www.votetrackor.com. Mine was received two weeks ago. :-) Kari, do you know if the site would report a problem if one arose? That I'm not sure of.
I've been doing progressive fundraising for the last month or so - multiple organizations, all lefty. I've heard about long lines, but nobody complains. They are all voting early so that nobody prevents them from voting on Tuesday. They're happy to be there.
That being said - the larger organizations are spending a ton of money and resources on voter protection that could go toward other GOtV efforts. This is a part of the budget that shouldn't even have to be there. What baffles me is that they call US unAmerican out of one side of their face while discussing how to make sure our votes don't count out of the other - when disallowing someone's right to vote is the most unAmerican thing I could ever think of. It makes me ill.
Oregon has, hands down, the cleanest, smoothest, most efficent way of voting and it's time that the rest of the country sat up and took notice. BUT the GOP will fight vote-by-mail every step of the way because they don't want voter turnout to be high! The higher voter turnout, the more likely Democrats (and lefty issues) are to turn their worlds upsidedown and take away all of their guns and turn all of their children gay.
The good news is that we have, what, a decade of 100% vote-by-mail? We have a good, long period of time to study these so-called problems they swore would arise when we went this direction. There are so few compared to the traditional means of voting. But all-in-all, we also have a pretty good track record of fairness.
However, in a Georgia or a Florida or an Ohio - would we worry about further disenfranchisement behind closed doors? For example - Florida is a no-match/no-vote state. So, let's say that I come up with a discrepancy somewhere about a week and a half before the election. I vote, thinking my vote is cast, but really it's in a pile somewhere because nobody called and told me. We wind up with a pile of "unmatched" ballots whereas in an at-the-polls election, people find out that there's a problem. Would it be better to find out that there's a problem at the last minute? Or would it be better to get more ballots in and hope these problems don't swing elections and/or trust people to follow up on their ballots which is far from likely for the general voting population?
See what I'm saying? You could still have pollwatchers, but what's to stop someone of filtering by either party or ethnic name as ballots come in - before anyone is there to make sure the ones in the "good" pile are counted fairly and effectively?
An organization that pulls foreclosure lists to try to pull voters from the roles would certainly do just about anything to make sure certain votes don't count. Before the country goes vote-by-mail, is it really better in all states/regions? Or would we just be guaranteeing issues in Florida, Ohio, Georgia, Penn, Virginia and Missouri, etc. for all time?
Thoughts?
Nov 2, '08
Two suggestions I would have for our system are to make the mail-by date extremely visible, such as with a bold "DO NOT MAIL AFTER" notice next to where you sign; and to make ballots postage-paid to ensure that mobility and income are not factors in who votes.
Has anyone ever seen reporting on the number of ballots that arrive late?
Also, I've found that multiple campaigns and organizations are all too happy to call me and tell me if my ballot has not yet been received. Has that not been others' experience? Although it does seem like a good idea to notify voters directly when their ballots are discarded due to a signature mismatch or spoilage issue.
Nov 2, '08
How do we know the person preparing the mail-in ballot is the same person who registered to vote? It takes far less courage to forge a signature in the privacy of your own residence than it does at a polling place.
If mail-in ballots are easier/better, why is it necessary to call the county election office to make certain that it's been verified? Answer: because you will only find out that your vote was disqualified weeks after the election. Personally, I am compelled to call verify my vote was accepted by the county elections office because Multnomah County rejected my last ballot because they believed the signature wasn't mine (it was). Had my signature been challenged at a polling place, I would have had the opportunity to show identification, rather than have my ballot rejected.
If the goal is to maximize participation, why not include pre-paid return envelopes?
If Democrats are interested in maximizing voter participation, they have an obligation to insure the integrity of that ballot from the time it's issued until it's counted.
It is naive to suggest that ballot fraud doesn't exist because we haven't found any yet. We will not find mail in ballot fraud so long as nobody is looking: we need an enforcement mechanism with real teeth if you want to take the Oregon Experiment and roll it out nationally.
Nov 2, '08
Rachel Maddow made an excellent point on her show this evening about the long waits endured by voters in Georgia, Florida, etc., being a sort of poll tax. She pointed out that what we DON'T see are the people who can't afford to take time off work or are not able to stay in line for hours for other reasons.
Even when people can stand in lines for hours, there is the economic concept of "opportunity cost" to be considered. If other states had vote by mail (a far superior system, whatever its deficiencies), these people could all be doing something else with all of this wasted time. When you aggregate all of the time spent waiting unnecessarily, what a tremendous cost to the individuals involved and to society.
My guess is that, by the 2012 election, we won't be the only "vote by mail" state. We didn't arrive at this point because someone woke up one morning and thought, "Gee, wouldn't it be great to have everyone vote by mail!" It was because so many people (at least half) were casting absentee ballots, that we already had a sort of de facto vote by mail system. We just eliminated the duplication of maintaining a parallel system for voting in person. It's a feather in our cap that we were smart enough to do this first. There are probably many people in other states wondering why they can't do it too.
7:54 p.m.
Nov 2, '08
We will not find mail in ballot fraud so long as nobody is looking: we need an enforcement mechanism with real teeth if you want to take the Oregon Experiment and roll it out nationally.
Anyone who believes that the county clerks do not take the job of signature verification seriously has not spent time observing them during election time.
Nov 2, '08
So the county clerks are all trained in handwriting analysis now?
And you don't believe there are submissive spouses who are "told" to sign their ballot envelope while the dominant spouse fills out both ballots at the same time?
How about those who were able to use the fake signature on the registration form?
Nov 2, '08
I would have for our system are to make the mail-by date extremely visible, such as with a bold "DO NOT MAIL AFTER" notice next to where you sign; and to make ballots postage-paid to ensure that mobility and income are not factors in who votes
There is a clear indication on the Oregon ballot envelope when the ballot must arrive in the county clerk's office to be valid. If a voter can't figure out from that when it should be mailed it is probably better he or she not vote at all. Which is probably the case for many other people.
10:08 p.m.
Nov 2, '08
And - they can't make return envelopes postage-paid because it is illegal to offer incentives of any monetary value for voting. A prepaid envelope is worth 42 pennies. Can't be done. I know it seems absurd, but it's a fine line - and they make up for it with secure drop sites within miles of anyone - about as close as a polling place would be. We really can't make voting much more convenient than we do.
10:59 p.m.
Nov 2, '08
There seem to be a bunch of incorrect assumptions in this comment thread.
<h1>1. If a ballot signature doesn't match the voter-reg card, the county clerks contact you to come in.</h1> <h1>2. Yes, they could make return envelopes postage-paid. It's not done because it's expensive. "it is illegal to offer incentives of any monetary value for voting" Sorry, wrong. (Seen the Starbucks ads where you get free coffee for voting on Tuesday?) It's illegal to offer incentives to vote a particular way -- but incentives for voting-at-all are very common. (I once spent a weekend in Los Angeles handing out coupons redeemable for free donuts in exchange for the "I voted" stickers you get at polling places.)</h1> <h1>3. There already exists an online service where you can find out if your ballot has been received. It is, admittedly, brand new. VoteTrackOR.com</h1>12:15 a.m.
Nov 3, '08
koko the ASL teacher:
Actually, yes, they are trained in handwriting analysis. I worked for Multnomah County Elections in 2004, and that was one of the very first trainings we received from a handwriting expert.
Any signature that is questionable is flagged by the first person and then checked by supervisors with many years of experience. If your signature doesn't match, you are contacted and can come into the county elections office to prove you are who you say you are and to provide a new signature.
However, if you fail to sign your ballot (as my husband did a few elections ago), your ballot does not count.
Spoilage isn't a problem unless it's an issue like forgetting to sign your ballot. Any problems with your ballot, like using the wrong kind of pen, crumpling your ballot, making a mistake on the ballot, etc. is handled by duplicating your ballot onto a clean ballot. This is done by a team of people from various political parties with many, many poll watchers looking over their shoulder.
The system is a pretty good one. I highly encourage those who have not seen it first hand to go in and watch to see how things are done. I didn't know half of it until I went in and worked as a paid employee.
Nov 3, '08
You're absolutely right, Kari -- every state should adopt vote-by-mail. Short of that, Election Day should be a national holiday. As things stand, people who don't have jobs or school to go to -- i.e., the rich and the retired -- have an advantage over the working stiffs who have to wait for hours in lines at the polls after they finish their workday. Obviously this works to the advantage of Republicans, which is why there would be strong resistance to reform.
Nov 3, '08
Election Day as a national holiday is the M.O. in many countries....Another issue: we commonly have terribly long and confusing ballots, between local, state and federal races and initiatives. Doesn't have to be that way.
Nov 3, '08
A co-worker of mine and her husband both received their mailed-in ballot back in the mail because the USPS read their name and address panel on the back as the delivery address. They laughed and grumbled and took their ballots to a drop box in a public library.
But they had voted early and got their mis-delivered ballots back in plenty of time to get them in on time. What if you mailed your ballot, then went out of town and the USPS mistakenly delivered it to your address and it sat in a pile of mail until you returned after Election Day? Could you show the mis-delivered ballot to the County Elections Office and get it accepted?
I think that the mail-in envelopes need to be redesigned to eliminate the possibility of the USPS interpreting the voter's return address on the back of the envelope as the delivery address. Perhaps printing it vertically, that is, 90 degrees from the rest of the information on the envelope?
Nov 3, '08
A co-worker of mine and her husband both received their mailed-in ballot back in the mail because the USPS read their name and address panel on the back as the delivery address. They laughed and grumbled and took their ballots to a drop box in a public library.
But they had voted early and got their mis-delivered ballots back in plenty of time to get them in on time. What if you mailed your ballot, then went out of town and the USPS mistakenly delivered it to your address and it sat in a pile of mail until you returned after Election Day? Could you show the mis-delivered ballot to the County Elections Office and get it accepted?
I think that the mail-in envelopes need to be redesigned to eliminate the possibility of the USPS interpreting the voter's return address on the back of the envelope as the delivery address. Perhaps printing it vertically, that is, 90 degrees from the rest of the information on the envelope?
Nov 3, '08
You're absolutely right, Kari -- every state should adopt vote-by-mail.
And we should get rid of the electoral college at the same time. There is something wrong with a system that can let the loser in the popular vote become president - especially when the loser proves to be a loser in more ways than one.
Nov 3, '08
I'm stumped by the argument that postage-paid envelopes are too expensive. You have to pay the 42 cents somewhere, it's just that currently we pay it as a poll tax rather than as an income tax. Put the darn 42 cents on my income tax already and make mail-in voting free.
Free vote-by-mail could be an excellent ballot initiative, too.
Nov 4, '08
When I obtained my franchise to vote, at age twenty-one, in 1964, The polling place was my initiation and a rite of passage. Off camous and away from the protection of academic free-speech, I was thrust into a room where the individuals ranked among the broadest example of just who a community is. My vote didn't change, but my perception of how my actions affect a society larger than myself have stayed with me all these years. When my middle daughter received her franchise to vote, at age eighteen years of age, she had the privilege of voting in the last polling-place general election in Oregon. When she returned home, she had been inculcated with the very same awe that her mother and I shared from our first initiation into voter responsibility. Since those days, I carry a resentment for Keisling's system. Not that I totally doubt its higher degree of integrity; rather, I can't convince myself that the system encourages awareness and social involvement with people, who either agree or not, at the final "great" moment when they all see that each ballot is collected in the same box. Vote-By-Mail has had nearly the same disenfranchising effect on me as having polling places in churches, when I lived in The Dalles.
Nov 4, '08
Four calls from Obama campaigners today. Three yesterday.
<h2>Honest, Kari. Not our collective wild imagination.</h2>