Editorial: Mail-in voting merits a look

System may create higher turnout

Ventura County Star      May 7, 2005

Ventura County politicians looking for votes may soon hear residents saying, "The ballot is in the mail." Under Assembly Bill 867 winding its way through the Legislature, Ventura County would be one of seven counties in the state to conduct elections entirely by mail. If approved, AB867 would do away with polling places and voting booths and, instead, require all voters to either mail their ballots to the elections division or deliver them to designated -off locations.

So-called mail-in elections already have been successfully held on a limited basis in some California cities and, in 1999, Oregon converted the entire state to all-mail elections.  
The Star thinks a mail-only balloting system has its advantages.

For starters, mail-only voting should be a cost-saver for the county it is less expensive than setting up polling places and training poll workers and no more money would need to be spent on voting machines.

The county's Assistant Registrar of Voters Gene Browning sees mail-in voting as less confusing to voters than some of the newer high-tech voting systems. "It is low-tech," he told The Star. "All you need is a pencil or a pen."

In addition, with a mail-in ballot there's hope voters marking their ballots at home would, in theory, be more likely to study the candidates better and research the issues more thoroughly when they are given more time and resources are at their fingertips.

More importantly, perhaps, voter turnout is likely to improve by making the process more convenient. In Oregon's case, system has been highly successful in boosting voter turnout by 30 percent. In the 2004 presidential election, voter turnout in the state was 86.5 percent, third highest in the nation and the largest presidential election turnout in Oregon since 1960.

Granted, this is not Oregon, but mail-in voting has proved popular among many Ventura County voters. More than 100,000 of the county's 385,000 registered voters have requested permanent absentee voting status. In fact, mail-in votes accounted for 28.2 percent of the total vote in the county last November. These voters like the convenience of mail-in voting and, equally importantly, they trust it.

If enacted, the mail-in voting system would take effect next year in time for the June primary. Under the bill, authority to conduct mail-in voting runs through 2011 at which time lawmakers would re-evaluate the law's pluses and minuses.

Doing away with the traditional polling place in favor of a system that can save taxpayer dollars and, at the same time, increase voter participation and turnout, is worth a try.