Argument grows for all-mail elections

November 19th, 2009, 1:14 pm · 8 Comments · posted by Martin Wisckol, Politics reporter

Tuesday’s dismal turnout at the polls added fuel to the call to do away with polling places and conduct elections entirely by mail, as is done in Oregon, two small California counties and at least one California city.

Just 9,172 - 4 percent - of the 72nd Assembly District’s voters went to the polls. But 30,745 voted by mail, accounting for 77 percent of all ballots cast. (Overall, a scant 18 percent of the district voters cast ballots.)

More people still make the trip in big elections - 55 percent of the county’s ballots last November were cast at the polling place. But that number shrinks a little each time around as more voters opt for the convenience of voting from home.

Fred Smoller is leading the call in Orange County for all-mail elections. He says it saves money and can increase turnout.

“Since voters are going that way anyway, why don’t we get ahead of the curve and start trying this on a trial basis?” said Smoller, director of the public administration masters degree program at Irvine’s Brandman University.

Smoller went to Sacramento to talk to lobbyists about getting the state legislation required for Orange County to try all-mail elections. He said he was told there was no way the Legislature would go for it.

But Smoller dismisses some Democrats’ concerns that all-mail elections would favor the GOP because Republicans vote by mail in higher percentages than their counterparts.

“When the system is in place and everybody votes by mail, there’s no proof that it favors one party or another,” he said.

He also waves off some Republicans’ worry that all-mail elections would make the election more vulnerable to fraud, citing the track record of a decade of all-mail elections in Oregon.

“The reason it’s slow to win support here is that there’s a whole group of political people who don’t want it, because they got elected with the old system,” he said.

Smoller shows no sign of backing off his advocacy. Indeed, he’s currently writing a book on all-mail elections.

“I’m going to be the Julia Child of vote-by-mail,” he quipped.

County Registrar of Voters Neal Kelley has encouraged voters to cast mail ballots. Among other things, it makes elections easier for him because it minimizes polling place snafus. It also means earlier results.

But Kelley, who does a good job of staying off the political battlefield, has not taken a position on all-mail ballots, saying it’s a decision for elected officials to make.

Kelley does, however, have a cost analysis, and the savings from an all-mail election is not as much as you might think. That’s because an all-mail election means more printing and mailing, which are his biggest election costs.

Tuesday’s special election and January’s runoff will cost a combined $1.4 million, Kelley said. If both were run all-mail, the total savings would stop short of $80,000.

A typical statewide election costs the county roughly $3.8 million, which would drop slightly to $3.6 million if it were done entirely by mail.

Smoller counters that with the state’s dire fiscal situation, every dime of savings helps.

While the Legislature may not be ready to give Orange County the green light, it did pass a bill this year to let the smaller counties of Yolo and Santa Clara try all-mail elections. However, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed the measure, saying, “Many prefer voting in person at their local polling
place.”

(Sierra and Alpine counties are allowed to do all-mail elections because they are rural with very small populations. The state’s 119 charter cities also have the ability to do all-mail elections.)

~~Regardless of Kelley’s neutrality, his colleagues in the California Association of Clerks and Election Officials endorsed the bill vetoed by Schwarzenegger.~~
While Kelley’s initial recollection was that the group endorsed the bill, he checked and the group in fact remained neutral.

Kelley remains skeptical of Smoller’s effort gaining traction any time soon.

“It’s a healthy debate to have,” he said. “I just don’t see it going anywhere.”

However, at least one hard-core proponent of polling places may be softening his view. County Supervisor Chris Norby, the top vote getter in Tuesday’s election, has argued for the polling places because he likes the civic ritual and because he thinks voters should wait to get as much information as they can before casting ballots.

But when I called him a couple weeks before the election, I learned he had cast his ballot by mail for the first time in his life. Of course, there was only one decision before voters in that race.

“I decided that I had all the information I needed to make my choice,” he said.

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Tom Kaptain says:

November 19, 2009 at 3:23 pm

There are many problems with all mail voting of which a few are mentioned above. You also have things like ballots not arriving in certain areas and that type of stuff. But the two biggest problems (and both have been big problems in other states) are that you have people pressuring others to show them their ballots, especially among family members (Parents gathering everyone at the dinner table to vote type of stuff or even more coercive activity) and you also have most people turning their ballots in as soon as they arrive because they think they know the issues when they actually don’t. I live in Burbank where they have an all mail ballot (by the way it has made no difference in turnout) and about ninety percent of the ballots have been cast before the only forum in the campaign was held. In fact in most all-mail elections, costs go up because candidates don’t know when people are going to vote, so they have to campaing twice as hard to voters that haven’t cast their ballots yet. It’s a bad idea.

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Fred Smoller says:

November 19, 2009 at 9:06 pm

Tom, what other states are you referring to? Only Oregon and virtually all of Washington have all mail balloting. Since 77% of the votes in the recent special election for the 72nd were cast by mail, can you find any instances of folks being pressured, or any other problems that you allege? Since we will hold a primary and general election next year, we would save $400,000 if those elections were done by mail, according to the Registrar of Voters–money that could be better spent on teachers, and other more pressing needs. But add to that the costs of special elections and recalls, and multiply that by 58 counties and hundreds of local governments and we are talking about many millions of dollars. AB 1228 would have allowed us to test the water, by gathering the data necessary to have an intelligent debate. With this veto the governor, who vowed “to blow up boxes” in Sacramento, has prevented us from us from even thinking outside the box. Wouldn’t you agree, that for a state facing dire fiscal problems, every reasonable reform needs to be on the table?

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SavvyRead says:

November 19, 2009 at 3:30 pm

Oh, puuulllllllleeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaseeee! That “election” was a disgrace, the participants had so many negatives no wonder ONLY 18% of the overall electorate bothered to turn out.

In terms of how many dumb and dumber women, five were involved with the candidate that as an OC Supervisor has a history of marital discord and serial liaisons plus allegations of forms of sexual harassment, and he and got the most votes from Republican voters to fill the Assembly seat vacated by Duvall after bragging about his conquests on an open microphone after a committee meeting in Sacramento? This is the illusion of the political dialogue underway.

Somehow voting systems have to be improved when the issue is the caliber of candidates for public office? Obviously none were the motivators for voters to traipse to polling places much less bother with Vote by Mail when there were NO CHOICES MADE AVAILABLE.

Anyone else watching Washington, DC and those players; Lady Pelosi having brokered a HEALTH REFORM package that totally dismissed issues of CHOICE for women left behind? A joke was going around that her’s was one of three bodies that turned up at a mortuary; two were men, one of which had been found dead in a brothel and the other drunk, but the staff was puzzled by the smile on the face of Pelosi until one suggested she must have thought there was the flash of a camera taking her picture! What a joke; “women?”

ocobserver says:

November 19, 2009 at 4:29 pm

If the gobblement is going to force a mail-in ballot on us then the gobblement should make the envelope postage free. Otherwise it’s discrimination against the poor, right??? They’ve already thrown enough monkey wrenches into the machinery. This will only create more.

November 20, 2009 at 1:38 am

Yes absolutely. Since I have worked on campaigns in both states, I know of literally dozens of cases in both Oregon and Washington where voters were pressured (usually by other family members occasionally by members of a social club or church) to fill out there ballot while other people were watching them. As far as everything being on the table, i certainly disagree, because nothing is more important to our society than well run and fair elections that reflect the choices of everyone. There was a time when I might have supported something like htis for specials, but frankly with the crazy in my opinion drive to bring it to all elections, I am hoping its never allowed for any elections in this state.

November 20, 2009 at 8:09 am

After watching the direction of this country for the last 10 years I would not be surprised if we have to dip our thumbs in purple ink on voting day in the not too distant future. So now not only do we have virtually no REAL choice in candidates, they are taking away our choice to options when it comes to voting too. Alot of people like to go to the neighborhood voting precinct to discuss the issues with fellow citizens prior to making their choice. It’s amazing how ignorant people are in such a so-called educated and literate society. So now the gobblement wants to isolate people to improve their control mechanism. Very ingenious!

Invitation to MORE VOTER FRAUD says:

November 20, 2009 at 8:44 am

We can have NO confidence in elections where names can vote by mail or computer.
This is an open invitation to more voter fraud, on a massive scale, and more fraudulent stolen elections.
The vote is too important to allow these kinds of shenanigans.
There are too many unqualified people who feel entitled and justified to cast fraudulent votes.
How dare you consider more ways to cancel out the votes of real qualified citizens!!
Who supports this? Mayor Daley and Obama’s Chicago. Obama’s Acorn!
Idiots and scoundrels!
People should have to show up AND present a valid PICTURE IDENTIFICATION!

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