Vote-by-mail test is proposed

[Rose Siding]

King County should consider conducting elections entirely by mail, County Councilwomen Julia Patterson and Kathy Lambert said yesterday.

Patterson, D-SeaTac, and Lambert, R-Woodinville, introduced a motion that would direct County Executive Ron Sims to choose "an appropriate" election to test a vote-by-mail election.

With some 70 percent of voters already casting permanent or one-time absentee ballots, Patterson said, "At some point it is reasonable for us to ask ourselves whether or not it makes sense to continue to administer two systems. What happens when only 10 percent of the voters are going to the poll?"

Patterson said she would expect the test election to be conducted in a nonpartisan special election.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002166520_elections01m.html

[ima_sinnic]

1. um, no, I prefer a secret ballot

--when you mail in an absentee ballot someone gets to scrutinize it to see if you're eligible to vote. Also, "provisional ballots" are a big part of the problem IMHO. Remember how Blackwell tried to manipulate the criteria for legitimate provisional ballots--AFTER the votes were in?

[merwin]

9. What, you want anyone who can slip by the 80 year old person

sitting at the desk to be able to vote?

Absentee ballots provide the best way to perform an election. Complete, 100% paper election, with an absolutely verifiable ballot.

Also, after the ballot is opened and verified that you are a registered voter in the state, your name is no longer attached to the ballot.

How can provisional ballots be a problem with absentee? That seems to REMOVE the concept of illegally throwing out provisional ballots, since you can drop it in any mailbox or bring it to any post office, etc.

As long as all of the laws regarding the absentee voting are clearly spelled out (which in WA they are), there is absolutely NO problem with it.

EDIT:
Oh yeah, and you can look for yourself and see if you were on the list of ballots that were not accepted and find out exactly why. Citizen oversight.

[Dervill Crow]

14. Secrecy envelopes

In Oregon we use mail-in ballots. The inside envelope is signed, and that is what is checked for eligibility. Then the envelope and the ballot are separated. The election results are both secret and accurate.

[ima_sinnic]

15. I admit I've been ignorant about how absentee voting works

--thank you all for enlightening me.

I'd be embarassed to tell you how old I am and still so uninformed x(

okay, I agree--absentee voting, if conducted the way y'all say, is definitely preferable

[stevedeshazer]

2. Vote by mail works just fine.

The whole country ought to do it.

[DELUSIONAL]

3. Oregon uses mail in ballots

I would assume that the King County mail in ballot would be similar to the Absentee ballot -- where there is an inner sealed envelop holding the secret ballot. The signature is on the outer ballot -- this would be checked and then once verified the inner pink envelop could be removed and removed from the identifying outer envelope.

The Washington state counties have very strict rules -- I trust the WA state registrars far more than the registrars in Ohio or Florida.

In fact mail in ballots would solve a whole lot of the problems. The post office is very good about getting the ballots -- often sitting up special collection points. For people who are paranoid the court houses or County buildings can have collections points for ballots. No more long lines.

We've voted absentee for years -- some of the ballot issues are complex and the non partisan candidates -- are generally very partisan -- so it takes research that is easier done with a stack of voter pamphlets, Democratic vote recommendations and the Internet for on-line research.

The better idea would be for the Federal ballots to be separate from the state and county ballots. When the state and/or county loads the ballot with complex issues -- which can differ from state to state and county to county -- we are NOT voting identical ballots throughout the US. In fact many of the ballots are a mess.

In the last 2 months I have heard lectures from British and Canadian nationals about the lousy system of voting in the US -- and how the US has no moral authority to criticize elections in ANY country.

[merwin]

10. The king county ballot IS an absentee ballot

Actually, they call it "permenant absentee" where you elect to receive mail-in ballots forever.

[DELUSIONAL]

13. That was what I was getting at

We vote absentee all the time -- we filled at a request for all ballots to be mailed years ago. They probably now call this "permanent absentee". One year my husband missed a critical vote because he had to be at work before the polls opened and didn't get home until the closed -- the next day he filled out an absentee ballot request. I followed his example 2 years later -- after being too ill to get to the polls.

We are in a different county -- but there seems to be standardization in the county rules regarding absentee. In fact I remember the stats for absentee voting state wide to be quite high.

Once you've done it this way you really don't want to go back to standing in line in the rain etc. You also have the time at home to be careful voter.

Viva la absentee ballot!

[central scrutinizer]

4. We have voted by mail in Oregon

for years, now. I'm sure there are some abuses where family members are bullied into voting a certain way, but it makes voting so easy that we always get a relatively high turnout, even on minor elections where normally it is hard to get 10% to come out.

[ecoalex]

5. Mail in Ballots are annonymous

Your name is on the envelope, not the ballots themselves , they are annonymous, so a secret vote once the voter's envelope is registered the enclosed ballots go in with all the other ballots with no desination of the voter who cast them.

[davidinalameda]

6. it would be so much easier

and cheaper

no electronic voting machines to register votes incorrectly

I love the idea--I always vote absentee

it gives me so much more time to actually sit down and look at the ballot

[olddad56]

7. makes it a lot easier for dead people to vote.

[davidinalameda]

8. dead people have been voting for decades

if you want to commit voter fraud, you're gonna find a way to do it no matter what the system

[TahitiNut]

11. If they vote and then die, who cares?

If death certificates are processed through the county board of elections, then the 'problem' is minimized. The controls are doable and don't have the same potential for disenfranchisement and abuse that other voting problems create.

[Robert Oak]

12. easier for working men and women to vote

way easier plus you have almost 2 weeks to research every issue
on the ballot.

no standing in line, trying to take time off from work and so on.