Mail ballots get stamp of approval by auditor
Clark County commissioners are told that heavy use of absentee ballots shows that voting by mail should be made permanent
Thursday, June 16, 2005
FOSTER CHURCH   The Oregonian

VANCOUVER The trend is clear: Voters like to mark their ballots at home and mail them in. And Clark County commissioners appear on the verge of letting them do so on a permanent basis.

During a work session Wednesday, county Auditor Greg Kimsey asked the board to pass an ordinance giving him authority to conduct all primary, special and general elections entirely with mail ballots.

The 2005 Legislature passed a law giving counties the option of conducting all elections by mail. The current voting system, Kimsey said, is a hybrid. Most ballots are cast by voters who have registered as absentee and therefore vote by mail. Voters also have the option of voting at polling places. 
  "The hybrid voting system that uses two types of ballots is more complex than a single system that uses only one ballot the mail ballot," he said.

Of all ballots cast in all county elections in the past three years, Kimsey said 83 percent were absentee. That included three elections cast entirely by mail.

In the 2004 general election, about 67 percent of all registered county voters were absentee.

"Voters made it pretty obvious where they are going voting by mail," he said.

In addition to being less complex and more understandable to voters, Kimsey said that going to a single voting system would save money. The Clark County Elections Department has estimated the county and its other jurisdictions would have saved $300,000 during the past four years if all elections had been by mail.

Also, if the county votes by mail, Kimsey said, it will eliminate the need to buy electronic voting machines at a cost of about $300,000 to accommodate disabled voters. Congress has required that each polling place be equipped with such machines.

Even if the county switches to all-mail elections, a polling place would be maintained at the county elections office at 1408 Franklin St. in Vancouver for 20 days before elections and on election days. Voters could take their mail ballots there and cast them in a voting booth. At least one electronic voting machine also would be available there for disabled people and other voters as well.

Drop-off boxes for ballots, staffed by two people, one from each major political party, would be available throughout the county. Eliminating polling places would mean the elections office would not need to hire, train and supervise more than 500 workers for polling places for large elections. But it still would need to hire temporary election workers to assist in verifying voter signatures, respond to inquiries from the public and work on the bipartisan inspection board.

Commissioners did not say Wednesday whether they would approve Kimsey's request, but they appeared receptive to the idea.

They will consider the issue and are expected to vote on it at their meeting Tuesday, which begins at 10 a.m.