Vote By Mail

By Aaron Blake
The Hill
March 23, 2007

for original article

Rep. Susan Davis (D-Calif.) introduced a bill Thursday that would require states to install systems to allow voters to track mail-in ballots by telephone and the Internet.

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) is expected to introduce another vote-by-mail bill in the Senate.

The U.S. Postal Service is currently developing an “Intelligent Mail” system that could be applied to mail-in ballots and restore confidence in voting by mail, Davis said.

“Implementing ballot tracking systems will bring voters peace of mind and reduce the burden on elections offices, which are often barraged with phone calls from voters trying to determine the status of their ballots,” she said.

Davis introduced a bill in January that would allow people to vote by mail for any reason.

Wyden’s office did not return calls seeking comment.

By RUTH GOLDWAY, Commissioner, Postal Rate Commission
Published: December 6, 2006

http://tinyurl.com/yxwxnw

Washington

LAST Election Day, voters encountered myriad difficulties, from the unexplained glitch that temporarily halted Montana’s vote count to the 18,300 undervotes in Florida’s 13th Congressional District, to long lines, bad weather, inadequately trained workers, delayed or missing absentee ballots and complicated new identity forms. There was, however, one state where all went well: Oregon, where everyone votes by mail.

Since Oregon adopted Vote by Mail as its sole voting option in 1998, the state’s turnout has increased, concerns about fraud have decreased, a complete paper trail exists for every election, recounts are non-controvertible and both major political parties have gained voters. Moreover, in doing away with voting machines, polling booths, precinct captains and election workers, the state estimates that it saves up to 40 percent over the cost of a traditional election.

Vote by Mail could offer real advantages if it were adopted nationwide. Voters would not need to take time off from work, find transportation, find the right polling station, get babysitters or rush through reading complicated ballot initiatives. The country’s 35,000 post offices could provide information, distribute and collect voting materials and issue inexpensive residency and address identifications for voting purposes.

By Kate Nash (Contact)
Wednesday, November 29, 2006

http://www.abqtrib.com/news/2006/nov/29/nm-considering-mail--elections/

Early and absentee voters

In Bernalillo County: 41,734 people voted early and 49,788 voted by absentee ballot. Combined, that's 46 percent of the ballots cast in the county.

Statewide: 132,333 people voted early and 96,011 voted by absentee ballot. Combined, that's 40.2 percent of the ballots in the state.

Source: Bernalillo County and the Secretary of State's Office

SANTA FE — In Oregon, casting a ballot is easier than visiting a drive-through coffee shop.

Since 1998, Beaver State voters have dropped their ballots in special mail receptacles or popped them in the regular mail.

Could New Mexico be next for similarly easy, and cheap, elections?

Maybe, says Secretary of State-elect Mary Herrera.

She's got mail-in elections on her to-look-into list, although not for the 2007 legislative session.

"Mail-in is a lot cheaper and you get a lot higher turnout," she said.

For the general election earlier this month, about 40 percent of the ballots statewide were cast before election day. That's a dip from the 2004 election, when 51 percent of people voted before Election Day.

By Bill Bradbury / Washington Post / Sunday, November 19, 2006
Go to original.

SALEM, Ore. -- This month, as controversies emerged in other parts of the country over polling place problems and malfunctioning touch-screen machines, we here in Oregon prepared to swear in a new crop of elected officials with nary a question about the legitimacy of the count or the functioning of our electoral process. We accomplished this with a turnout on Nov. 7 that was, once again, among the highest in the nation. How? With Vote by Mail.

One episode that highlights its success occurred in Tillamook County, where 13 inches of rain on Election Day sent many citizens scrambling to the safety of shelters under a declared state of emergency. Despite the fact that many roads were impassable and parts of the county were inaccessible -- conditions that would have crippled turnout in a state that relied on conventional polling places -- 70 percent of the voters cast ballots. Only voting by mail could have led to this outcome.

Voting by mail was launched statewide through a people's initiative in 1998, which passed by a 70 to 30 percent margin. Every registered voter receives a paper ballot in the weeks before Election Day. The ballot can be either mailed back or dropped off at one of a number of secure sites statewide.

The system has proven to be fraud-free. Oregon is one of only two states in the nation to verify every single voter signature against the signature on that voter's registration card. Our process is transparent and open to observation. Finally, the returned paper ballots, which are the official record of the election, can be recounted by hand.

Go to original.

U.S. needs to follow Oregon's lead for election efficiency

November 13, 2006

In much of the country, here's how last week's election went: Problems with new electronic voting machines. Long waits, as much as three hours, to vote. Confusion about acceptable ID. Showing up at the polls only to find that your name had been purged from the rolls.

In Oregon, here's how it went: We voted by mail, as we have for more than a decade. We took as long as three weeks to consider ballots in the privacy of our homes. Then, we mailed our ballots or dropped them off at official drop sites. Our turnout: 70 percent, verses 40 percent for the nation as a whole.

Hello out there! Anyone paying attention?

Go to original.

By Brian Knowlton
International Herald Tribune

So many voters are casting absentee ballots or voting early this year that it could still be unclear on Nov. 8 - the day after the midterm elections - whether Democrats have managed to gain control of at least one house of Congress by winning 15 additional House seats or 6 more in the Senate.

Many Americans are turning to absentee voting as a convenience, while for others - as with overseas civilians and military personnel - it is a necessity. The political polarization of recent times appears to be driving some expatriates to vote for the first time in years. And after election controversies in 2000 and 2004, some people appear to feel more comfortable avoiding the voting booth.

Thirty states allow "no excuse" absentee voting, meaning a voter does not need to provide a rationale, like being ill, out of town or on an overseas posting.

But the rising numbers of such voters could mean prolonged uncertainty. Some early and absentee ballots are counted as they arrive, with results kept secret until Election Day. Others are tallied along with regular ballots. But overseas ballots are sometimes counted much later, as late as Nov. 22 in Alaska and Nov. 28 in Washington State.

by FinneganOregon
Tue Nov 07, 2006 at 11:04:03 AM PST

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/11/7/1443/81740

This is Jeremy Wright. Campaign manager for the 1998 Vote by Mail initiative and political advisor to two Oregon Secretaries of State. I have noticed Kos pushing VBM which is great and I also noticed alot of questions about the mechanics of the system so I thought I would help on that front. This will be more about the actual mechanics of how it works and less about the merits of VBM.

* FinneganOregon's diary :: ::
*

When are ballots mailed?

Ballots are mailed between 20-22 days before election day.

They are mailed bulk and ballots are not forwaded.

What is in the ballot envelope?

Your ballot envelope also contains two envelopes - a return envelope and a secrecy envelope. And of course your ballot.

What do you do with the ballot?

Well vote obviously. But HOW?

Ballots are filled out with a #2 pencil and are the optical scanner variety (like the SAT test - you fill in ovals next to your candidate).

You fill out your ballot and then place it in the secrecy envelope.

You place the secrecy envelope in the return envelope. You sign the back of your return envelope swearing you are who you are.

Candidates adapt campaigns to increasingly popular absentee voting; officials may rethink funding polling places
By Lisa Vorderbrueggen
CONTRA COSTA TIMES

http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/news/14654137.htm

Contra Costans voting by mail may, for the first time, outnumber those who walk into their polling places June 6.

The trend mirrors a statewide uptick in voting by mail that hits election officials' budgets, alters campaign strategies and inches California closer to a day when it may have to choose between tradition and convenience.

"We're right now in the worst possible combination of both worlds," said Contra Costa County Registrar Steve Weir and incoming president of the California Association of Clerks and Registrars.

"We have to run a full precinct operation, and with the tremendous amount of turnout coming in the mail, I don't have the economy of either scale benefiting us."

Based on absentee ballot return rates thus far, Weir predicted Contra Costa could see mail-in voters overtake Election Day voters for the first time.

If it happens, Weir said, it may foreshadow a tipping point where most Californians vote by mail, and lawmakers may rethink whether it makes sense to deploy a massive and costly Election Day operation.

Up to 140,000 in Snohomish County have to make the switch from polling stations to home.
By Jeff Switzer / Herald Writer / May 25, 2006
Go to original.

Snohomish County officials closed election polling places once and for all last week and now begin the move to all-mail elections. Little will change for more than 200,000 voters who cast absentee ballots. But as many as 140,000 voters who have trekked to their local polling places now must switch to the mail-in ballots and learn how the system works.
"We are transitioning into a new phase of elections in Snohomish County, a new era of voting," elections manager Carolyn Diepenbrock said. "For 40 percent of the voters, it's a totally different environment."

The County Council voted in January to switch to mail-only elections, beginning with the September primary. The move follows a statewide trend and sidesteps $1 million in equipment purchase that would have been necessary to meet a legislative mandate. Absentee voters make up about 60 percent of the county's 352,000 voters. For the balance, officials are launching an effort to collect proper mailing addresses in time for the September primary election.
If a voter's address is incorrect on the county voting rolls, that voter runs the risk of not receiving a ballot.

Nearly as important are accurate and current voter signatures, Diepenbrock said. She offered a gentle reminder - not a requirement - that voters might need to update their voter signatures. Some voter registration cards were signed decades ago, and a voter's signature might have changed, she said. Voter signatures are the key standard by which elections officials judge the validity of a mail-in ballot, she said.

Elections workers are trained by the State Patrol to compare the signature on the ballot against a signature displayed on computer screens. "Voters must sign ballots carefully," Diepenbrock said. "Sign it as if it is a legal document." If county elections workers find a mismatched signature while counting ballots, they are forced to send a letter to clear up the matter. A voter might have just two weeks to respond in order to ensure that their vote is counted.

Nation looks to state for new election system model Post office has been the main polling place since 2000
By Jim Redden / The Portland Tribune / May 16, 2006
Go to original.

Is vote-by-mail the solution to the election controversies that have gripped other parts of the country for much of the past six years? A growing number of election reform advocates think so, including Dave Jackson, a member of the Oregon Voter Rights Coalition, one of numerous grass-roots groups across the country worried that elections are rife with fraud and cheating.

“From what I know, Oregon’s vote-by-mail system is the most secure voting system in the country,” Jackson said, explaining that he first began worrying about elections after the 2000 Bush-Gore counting debacle. The vote-by-mail system will be on full display in today’s primary election. The offices of the Multnomah County Elections Division will hum with activity as around 150 temporary workers process ballots that have been filled out and mailed in by county voters.

Signatures will be checked, ballots will be inspected and automated counting machines will tabulate the results that are scheduled to be released beginning at 8 p.m. Voters have until then to bring their ballots by the office, at 1040 S.E. Morrison St., for them to count. To learn more about how the system works, Jackson and two other coalition members — Jim Andrews and Kathleen Bushman — visited the office May 8. They met with Multnomah County Director of Elections John Kauffman, who walked them through the office where workers already were busy processing the vote-by-mail ballots that had been streaming in since blank ones for the May 16 primary election were mailed out in late April.

As they walked from room to room, Jackson and the others peppered Kauffman with questions about how the ballots are handled. They wanted to make sure ballots could not be stolen or switched and to know what safeguards prevented elections workers from learning how individual voters cast their ballots.

Jackson, Andrews and Bushman are among thousands across the country who are worried about the integrity of the nation’s voting system. Their concerns were heightened by numerous problems with Ohio’s primary election, which was held May 2. Among other things, some Ohio voters and elections workers had problems using the state’s new computerized touch-screen voting machines. Similar problems have plagued elections in other states in recent years, too.

In response to questions about the situation in Ohio, Kauffman explained that such problems cannot happen in Oregon because vote-by-mail requires paper ballots that are fed through relatively simple tabulating machines. Voters cast their votes by using pens to fill in ovals on the ballots. Because nothing has to be punched out, the ballots are not marred by the hanging, dimpled or pregnant chads made infamous in Florida during the 2000 presidential election.

At one point in the tour, Kauffman, Jackson and the others watched workers test the six machines that will count all of the ballots cast in Multnomah County, beginning early in the morning on election day. The same set of specially prepared ballots was run through each machine, which then produced a printout of the results. Elections workers checked to make sure each machine tabulated the ballots correctly.