01-02-2009, 12:31 PM
I voted by mail for many years in Oregon. It was particularly useful in a state with binding ballot measures, which are not just referendums. I would sit at the kitchen table and go through all the voter guides and my cheat sheets and fill out the ballot, then drive it down to county elections and drop it off when we were in town. Oregon has had excellent results with vote by mail: voter participation went up and fewer lame brained initiatives got passed because people had a chance to carefully read the initiative language and really think about them when they voted. No more troubles than any other voting system either, less than with electronic voting machines. Oregon made the switch when over 75% of the voters were using absentee ballots, more in rural areas.
Vote by mail IS NOT the same thing as online or electronic voting. I want a paper trail and vote by mail gives you that; one year the elections office even called me to verify my signature on the outside of the privacy envelope 3 days after I dropped my ballot off. I have to admit I never entrusted my vote to the USPS though.
Carol
Vote by mail IS NOT the same thing as online or electronic voting. I want a paper trail and vote by mail gives you that; one year the elections office even called me to verify my signature on the outside of the privacy envelope 3 days after I dropped my ballot off. I have to admit I never entrusted my vote to the USPS though.
Carol
Carol
Every time you feel yourself getting pulled into other people's nonsense, repeat these words: Not my circus, not my monkeys.
Polish Proverb
Every time you feel yourself getting pulled into other people's nonsense, repeat these words: Not my circus, not my monkeys.
Polish Proverb