Let voters chart future of elections

Opinion   The Olympian   20 March 2005

Now is a perfect time for Thurston County voters to decide whether to switch to all-mail elections.
 
The voting fiasco in Florida in the 2000 presidential campaign resulted in a mandate for change by Congress. Lawmakers in Washington, D.C., passed a bill, which President Bush signed into law, requiring all election officials to abandon punch-card voting by 2006.

Thurston County has used punch cards for years but, in accordance with the new federal law, must have an optical scan voting system in place by 2007.

Under today's system, voters use a sharp implement to punch out small cardboard chads that correspond with the candidate of their choice. Those cardboard ballots are then fed through a tabulation machine that uses beams of light to record votes.

Electronic tally

In an optical scan voting system, voters mark a paper ballot with a pencil. They either shade in a bubble next to the candidate's name or draw an arrow to signal voting choices. The paper ballot is then fed through a processing machine that tallies the votes electronically.

Changing from a punch-card to an optical scan election system is an expensive proposition. Thurston County Auditor Kim Wyman estimates that it will cost about $400,000 to make the conversion. Congress has appropriated the dollars necessary for the change in voting hardware.

Wyman initially planned to change election systems last fall. She backed down when she determined that it would be unwise to change voting hardware at the same time voters were being asked to change their procedures for casting primary election ballots. Wyman decided to wait a year.

Then came the November general election, when Gov. Christine Gregoire beat Republican Dino Rossi by a mere 129 votes. The unprecedented scrutiny of that election has revealed numerous problems with the way ballots are circulated, collected, verified and tabulated in Washington state. Legislators have responded with a series of bills to change election procedures.

Some lawmakers want to force counties into all-mail elections no more poll sites open on Election Day. Other legislators want to give counties the option of conducting all of their elections via mail. Mason County has made that transition.

Since Thurston County is being forced to change election systems anyway, it makes sense for election officials to determine whether now is the time to make the leap to all-mail elections.

Advantages

There are obvious advantages to make the switch.

- Cost savings. Wyman estimates the county could save $400,000 in poll-site costs by going to an all-mail election.

- The switch would end the need for two separate voting systems, one for voters who cast ballots at the polls, one for mail-in ballots.

- Voters could take their time to study the issues and candidates and vote from the comfort of their living room, instead of standing in lines and being rushed at the polls.

- There will be dramatically fewer challenged or questioned ballots, Wyman said.

- And the truth is that most county voters 70 percent in the past election prefer to vote via the postal service.

There are disadvantages, too.

- The greatest disadvantage is loss of the sense of community when neighbors congregate at a fire station or church to cast ballots.

- All-mail elections also increase the opportunity for people to cast ballots for others simply by copying their signature.

Given the mandate by Congress to abandon punch-card voting and given the Legislature's inclination to follow Oregon example of all-mail elections, it's a perfect time for Thurston County voters to state their preference.

Do voters want to invest in the new optical scan machines for every precinct, or do they want to switch to vote-by-mail? An advisory ballot should be put before voters this fall.