Editorials
Why Vote By Mail Works
Mar 21, 2007, 07:51
The following was sent by Mary Conley, mary.conley@state.or.us, 503-986-2368, Chief of Communications, Salem, Oregon. We publish this as an argument as to how this system works in our neighboring states.
On Election Day 2006, as reports of voting problems surfaced across the country, voters in Oregon and Washington - despite storms and flooding - experienced yet another transparent and secure election.
Many Oregonians have been voting by mail for more than twenty years, and after a long and successful experience with the process, they passed a 1998 statewide referendum to move the state to all-mail elections by a margin of 70 to 30 percent. Five years later, a University of Oregon Study found that more than 80 percent of Oregonians preferred it to polling place elections.
In Washington, since 1983 counties have been allowed to conduct non-partisan special elections by mail. Since 1993 voters have had the option of choosing to become "permanent" mail-in voters. In 2005, the Washington State Legislature passed a Secretary of State request bill authorizing counties to choose to conduct all elections by mail. This option proved so popular that by 2006, 34 of Washington's 39 counties had switched to all-mail elections, and many of the remaining counties anticipate switching to all mail elections.
Voters aren't the only ones who love Vote by Mail. Past Secretaries of State - both Republican and Democrat - in both states have been strong advocates. County Clerks and County Auditors in both states similarly support the system.
The most common argument against Vote By Mail is the misguided notion that the system is somehow more susceptible to fraud than are polling place elections. Nothing could be farther from the truth.
Under Vote By Mail, every return envelope requires a voter's signature, and every single signature is checked against the signature on that voter's registration card. Non-matching signatures are not rejected, but are set aside until the county can contact the voter to verify that the proper voter filled out the ballot and signed the envelope.
The voter's signature on the return envelope also swears an oath that the voter is who they claim to be, and that they filled out their ballot without improper influence. Violation of that oath is punishable in Oregon by five years in prison and $125,000 fine for each fraudulent ballot. Violation of that oath is punishable in Washington by up to five years in prison, a $10,000 fine, or both.
Once returned to the county, ballots are kept under lock and key. In Oregon ballots are watched with video surveillance. In Washington ballots are kept in secured cages, and the ballot area is restricted to a handful of election personnel. No one person is left alone with ballots. Logs are kept of entry into the ballot locations, and some counties even have armed sheriff's deputies that guard ballots and the facility around the clock.
Every part of this process, from sending out ballots, to their receipt, signature verification, storage, and counting is open to inspection and observation by any interested party. In Washington, many counties are also using a ballot audit system that tracks ballot inventories. The system allows for election officials to account for every ballot as they move from receiving, through processing, to a tabulator, and into secure storage.
These security measures and the seriousness with which we treat voter fraud are the reasons why neither Oregon nor Washington has experienced fraud to a level that would impact the result of an election.
In addition to the security provided by a well-administered Vote By Mail system, voters enjoy the liberty of filling out their ballots on their own time in the comfort of their homes. Voters find that they have the leisure to do additional research on down-ballot races or some of the more obscure ballot initiatives and local issues, leading to more informed voting, and more representative results.
Vote By Mail has been an enormous success in both Oregon and Washington.
The legitimacy of our government - and the future of our Democracy itself -
depend upon the fairness, transparency, and security of our election processes. As the elected officials in our states ultimately responsible for that tremendous responsibility, we believe that Vote By Mail has met these most basic and most vital requirements.
Bill Bradbury is Oregon Secretary of State and Sam Reed is Washington Secretary of State.
COMMENTS:
March 21, 2007
I would personally love to see vote by mail here in Idaho. My wife and I live in a rural area on the outskirts of St. Maries and both work in the opposite direction from our polling place... To make it from work to the polls before they close is a close shave at times... The weather is also a factor. November is not a nice weather month for us... The county does keep our road clear to a point but is is still quite dangerous for us to drive the 7-8 miles of back road to get to the polls... I know that we would be more diligent in voting if it were easier... We always vote in the national elections but sometimes it is just to hard to get in if it is just for a local election.
Thanks Steve & Gail Malone spmalone@hughes.net