[EL] Line Standers --not just heroic but Hiatoric

[Dan Meek]

Thomas Cares may assume that in a vote-by-mail system there would be 
ballot drop boxes conveniently located for all voters.  That is not the 
case in Oregon, where in rural areas drop boxes are often 50 miles or 
more apart.

And why have special ballot drop boxes, when there are hundreds of 
millions of regular mail drop boxes in America, including one at 
virtually every residential and business address?  A better solution 
would be Thomas's recommendation of free postage for all ballots, along 
with the Washington approach of counting every ballot that is postmarked 
on or before election day.

Dan Meek

	503-293-9021 	dan at meek.net <mailto:dan at meek.net>	866-926-9646 fax


On 11/8/2012 11:21 AM, Salvador Peralta wrote:
Tom describes exactly the process that exists with respect to vote by 
mail as it is presently conducted in Oregon.

Starting in 2012, the USPS is obliged by its own policies to deliver 
ballots regardless of whether the ballots have sufficient postage.

Ballots may be returned via the mail or in person to ballot drop sites 
located in the counties in which voters reside.

Voters who lose their ballots may request a provisional ballot at their 
local county clerk's office.

On the question of fraud or potential fraud, I would hope that some of 
the academics on the list will consider conducting a serious study on 
the strengths and weaknesses of VBM as it is conducted in Oregon and 
Washington.  A study recently posted to the list that touched on VBM 
versus in-precinct voting struck me and several of the folks I shared it 
with as being remarkably short on actual data.

After reading about the various problems around the country -- long 
lines; faulty touchscreen machines; poorly trained poll workers; 
potential voter initimidation; voters missing from the rolls in their 
precinct; ad hoc policies with respect to the handling of provisional 
and absentee ballots, etc. -- I imagine that more states will look 
toward vote by mail as an alternative, particularly since the cost of 
VBM is substantially less than in-precinct polling.


------------------------------------------------------------------------
*From:* Thomas J. Cares <Tom at TomCares.com>
*To:* Election Law <law-election at uci.edu>
*Sent:* Thursday, November 8, 2012 10:36 AM
*Subject:* Re: [EL] Line Standers --not just heroic but Hiatoric

I have doubts that any of the five ideas in the WaPo article Rick link 
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/wp/2012/11/08/five-ways-to-cut-long-election-lines/>ed 
to would _/dramatically/_ improve wait times.

I wonder if we could do something bigger, like just mail everyone a 
vote-by-mail ballot, and have the federal government fully subsidize 
return postage for all VBM ballots. Voters could discard the ballots and 
vote at the polls as if they'd never received them, or mail them, or 
return them to any polling place in their county.

With this, I'd bet less (maybe a great deal less) than one-third of 
ballots would actually be filled out at polling places, and that the 
overwhelming majority would either mail their ballot or simply drop it 
off at a polling place on election day (with the convenience of being 
able to go to one near their job, or favorite grocery store, and not 
necessarily the one in their home precinct - and not having to wait!).

I suspect the argument against this would be the potential for fraud 
(I'm not sure that's meritorious though; diligent implementation could 
probably prevent fraud).

There's a good argument for better early voting policies, but a 
disadvantage to early voting is that something may happen in the last 
days of the campaigns that could cause an (objective) voter to change 
their mind on at least one thing on their ballot (I'm a permanent vote 
by mail voter, but whenever I'm certain I'm going to be in LA County on 
election day, I hold my ballot until the election to allow for that 
contingency). It would certainly seem helpful if all voters had the 
automatic option to fill out their ballot at home and quickly drop it 
off on election day.


Thomas Cares

On Thu, Nov 8, 2012 at 8:01 AM, Roy Schotland 
<schotlan at law.georgetown.edu <mailto:schotlan at law.georgetown.edu>> wrote:

    We haven't sung enough about the Line Standers, who stand among the
    all-time proof of how much people --as grass-roots as can be-- care
    about the Right to Vote.
    Roy A. Schotland
    Professor Emeritus
    Georgetown Law Center

      


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