Shelby County Needs Vote-By-Mail Now!

Today I saw Thaddeus’ posting about the Coalition for Fair Elections. I’m all for fair elections, but working with the traditional system with electronic voting machines just will not get it done. The State of Oregon has vote-by-mail. It’s a great system that works well and has wide bipartisan support. Most importantly, people in the State of Oregon have faith the electoral system works. That’s more than we can say here isn’t. It seems like a good time to start talking about completely redoing the voting system in Shelby County. We’ve already had the Ophelia fiasco and now we are going to have to pay $200,000 for a special election to fill Henri Brooks’ seat. Imagine a voting system that can conduct that special election at a fraction of cost, have higher turnout, and almost zero likelihood of fraud. Add to this, Vote-By-Mail has a side benefit of cleaning up voter rolls without the costly research and effort of the traditional system. That’s right John Harvey, all those dead people will be off the rolls, as will those folks who moved to Fayette, Tipton, and Desoto counties but still feel the need to vote in Shelby County. This is a long post but take a look at how it works.

Vote-By-Mail benefits-
• Increases voter participation, normally by 6 to 12 percentage points and especially in special elections
• Removes barriers that can keep people from getting to the polls
• Allows more time for people to study issues and candidates before marking the ballot
• Has built-in safeguards that increase the integrity of the elections process
• Saves taxpayer dollars-No need for polling stations, Diebold voting machines, and poll workers and watchers

All the following information comes from the report:
Ballot Integrity and Voting by Mail:
The Oregon Experience
By Dr. Paul Gronke, Director, EVIC at Reed College
A Report for the Commission on Federal Election Reform
Co-Chairs:
President Jimmy Carter and Honorable James A. Baker, III
From June 2005

How Vote-By-Mail Works-

Step 1: The voter fills out a registration card with a name, address, and signature. The election office then enters the name and scans the signature of the voter into the computer system.

Step 2: An election packet is created. The election packet includes: ballot, return identification envelope with unique barcode, and secrecy envelope. The packet is sent out 14-18 days before the election.

Step 3: The United States Postal Service delivers the election packet to the name and address on the registration card.

Step 4: The voter fills out the ballot, places it in the secrecy envelope, places the secrecy envelope in the return identification envelope, and signs his or her name on the return envelope.

Step 5: The voter: A) stamps the return identification envelope and places it in the mail, or B) takes it to a designated drop site, or C) delivers it directly to the county election office.

Step 6: The county election official checks that: A) the correct colored return identification envelope for this election has been used, B) the ballot has been received by the correct county (otherwise forward), C) the return identification envelope has been signed, D) the name signed matches the name of the voter, E) the signature on the return identification envelope matches the signature on the voter’s registration card, and F) the voter has not already submitted a ballot. All of these checks can be made as soon as the election office receives the ballot. The return ID envelope still remains unopened.

Step 7: Not sooner than seven days before an election, inspection teams may begin removing the secrecy envelopes with ballots from the return ID envelopes. The teams ensure that the ballot counting equipment can read the ballots. Ballots with clear voter intent but which are machine unreadable are duplicated. On Election Day, ballots are fed into a machine and tallied.

Here are some common questions about possible problems-

If there is no forwarding address:
If the USPS reports that the voter is temporarily away, the ballot is put aside for the election. No changes are made to the voter roll and the voter continues to be listed as active. If the voter contacts the election office, they will mail a replacement ballot to a temporary address.

If there is an unrecognized name or address, the election office checks the address and the registration card. If there was a data entry mistake, the election packet is resent with the corrected address. If no error can be detected, the ballot is put aside for the election. After the elections, a forwardable notice is sent to the voter.

If there is a forwarding address:
The ballot is put aside for the election. The voter’s registration is updated. A Voter Notification Card is generated and sent to the new address. The voter will automatically be sent a ballot for the next election. The voter may appear in person to update his or her registration and receive a ballot for the current election.

Forwarding address in another county:
The ballot is put aside for the election and the voter’s registration is recorded as inactive. A forwardable notice is sent to the voter, letting them know that they need to re-register and that their old registration is now inactive. No ballot will be sent for the next election unless the voter re-registers.

Forwarding address in another state:
The ballot is put aside for the election and the voter’s registration is recorded as inactive. A forwardable notice of inaction is sent.

If the voter is not registered in the county:
If the voter is not listed in the county registration record, he or she is issued a provisional ballot. All provisional ballots are researched to see if the voter was eligible. All provisional ballots must be resolved by the date the election is certified.

If the signature on the envelope is questioned?
If the ballot is returned with no signature, the lection officials highlight the signature box and send back the return ID envelope with instructions to sign and return the envelope by 8 pm on Election Day. If there is not enough time to send the ID envelope back, an election official call the voter and asks him or her to come into the election office to sign the return ID envelope. If the envelope is not signed before 8 pm on Election night, the ballot is not counted.

If the wrong name is signed:
If the return ID envelope is signed with a name other than the voter’s, a letter is sent and instructions are given to the voter on what to do in order to have his or her ballot counted. If the elections office receives ballots where each of two members of a household signed the other’s return ID envelope, both ballots are counted.

If the signature doesn’t match:
An election officer contacts the voter and asks him or her to come into the election office. The voter can either re-sign the return identification envelope and have that signature checked against the signature on his or her registration card or fill out a new registration card. If the voter does not respond to inquires, the case is passed on to the Secretary of State’s office. If the Secretary of State’s office does not get a response, he or she may choose to forward the case to the Attorney General for further investigation. If questions are not resolved within 10 days of the election, the ballot is not counted.

Here is some background and statistics on Vote-By-Mail-

All the following data comes from Priscilla L. Southwell who works in the Department of Political Science at the University of Oregon.

Ballot measure for Vote-By-Mail passed with 67% of vote in Oregon in 1998. The system was tested in a special primary in December 1995 and a special election in January 1996.

In 2003, voters were surveyed about Vote-By-Mail.
81% of survey respondents supported Vote-By-Mail
85% of Democrats, 81% of Independents, and 77% of Republicans supported it.
81% of whites and 79% of minorities supported it.
People with less than a high school diploma support it by 88%, High School Diploma 85%, Some college 80%, College degree 80%, and advanced degree holders 76%.

Support by income for Vote-By-Mail, less than $18,000 81%, $18,000 to $25,000 84%, $26,000 to $40,000 84%, $41,000 to $70,000 81%, $71,000 to $100,000 78%, and over $100,000 77%.

23% of men say they vote more often and 33% of women vote more often because of Vote-By-Mail. Only 4% of men and women vote less often because of Vote-By-Mail.


So you can see, Vote-By-Mail has been a great success in the state of Oregon. If a whole state can do it, why can’t Shelby County?