Oregon's mail voting drawing notice from other states

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/politics/20060427-1306-wst-votingbymail.html

By Brad Cain
ASSOCIATED PRESS

1:06 p.m. April 27, 2006

SALEM, Ore. – Oregonians have been voting by mail in statewide elections since 1998. Like some seasonal rite of nature, ballots show up at voters' homes. Folks have 18 days to mark their choices among the candidates and mail it back.

It's that time again. On Friday, election officials will begin sending out 2 million mail ballots to the homes of registered voters for Oregon's May 16 primary.

Oregon is the only state in the nation that has abolished the voting booth, but other states are moving in that direction.

In neighboring Washington state, voters are allowed to become “permanent absentees” and sign up to receive ballots by mail. Nearly 90 percent of that state's voters are expected to cast mail-in ballots in this year's elections, officials there say.

Counties in California and Colorado are pushing for vote-by-mail programs and Arizona may have the issue on the ballot this November.

“In 1998, people thought Oregon was quirky,” said Oregon Secretary of State Bill Bradbury, a leading booster of the vote-at-home system. “Now they're taking a second look at what we've done.”

Voters like the convenience that mail balloting offers.

Salem resident Mieke Visser says she enjoys gathering up her voter's pamphlet and other election materials, then taking her time marking her ballot in the comfort of her living room. She feels little nostalgia for the days when people trooped to a polling place.

“I don't miss it all that much, especially when I think back to voting in November elections, when it was usually raining and you had to stand in line,” said Visser, who works as a system analyst for the state.

Backers of vote by mail say it's a less expensive system than having to hire poll workers to oversee voting machines, and they say it often boosts voter turnout in off-year or lower-interest local elections.

When Oregon first went to mail-only ballots, naysayers said it could invite election fraud. So far, Oregon elections have been squeaky clean, state officials say.

Those assurances don't ease the fears of critics like Curtis Gans, director of the Center for the Study of the American Electorate in Washington, D.C.

Gans believes it's all but inevitable that as vote-by-mail becomes more common, so will instances of people being coerced to vote a certain way by family members or others.

“It essentially eliminates the secret ballot,” Gans said. “This process offers all kinds of potential for chicanery and fraud, with someone telling their spouse, 'This is how we're going to fill out our ballots.' “

But Washington Secretary of State Sam Reed said he's seen no evidence that voting by mail has led to coercion or fraud in his state.

Right now, 35 out of Washington state's 39 counties have vote by mail, and Reed said he thinks the state might reach 100 percent mail balloting by the 2008 election.

“People are so much on the run today,” the secretary of state said. “They work all day, rush home to feed the family, then rush off to Boy Scout meetings. With vote by mail, they can cast their ballot on their own time, and at their leisure.”

The Vote By Mail Project, a nonpartisan advocacy group that promotes the system across the country, says Oregon's low-tech system of voting by mail eliminates potential problems that can come with high-tech voting equipment.

“There's a lot of concern about the dependability of touch-screen voting, for example,” said Adam Smith, spokesman for the project. “Vote by mail may be low tech, but it works.”

But for people like Salem resident Kirk Best, the best thing about voting by mail is not having to rush through marking a ballot at a polling place.

“It's just a more contemplative way to cast your vote,” said Best, who works as a management consultant.

On the Net:
Center for the Study of the American Electorate: spa.american.edu/csae/
Vote by Mail Project: www.votebymailproject.org/