Dear Rick:

 

I have been trying to keep up on the postings on the listserv (well, except for the campaign finance law treatises, which I leave to the few whose field that is).  Thanks for your links to some excellent political articles.

 

I wanted to alert you to a local situation that may be of interest to some subset of the list.  Here in my area there is a special election set for June 8, in West Contra Costa County.  This may be the first test of the new state law that designates dates for mail-only elections in larger jurisdictions. 

 

This election will consist of two measures, one to prevent a hospital from closing and one to enact a parcel tax to provide funding for the schools.

 

The Contra Costa County Registrar has expressed numerous concerns about this, especially because the voters are unused to mail elections.  He cited a small precinct that was required to vote by mail in the March 2 primary, where 11.5% of ballots were disqualified for arriving late.  (The law goes by receipt date, not postmark date).  There is also concern over possible fraud because each ballot must be verified by comparing the signature on the ballot to the signature on the registration card, with no in-person check possible.

 

Interestingly, this does not appear to be a true all-mail election.  Ballots may be dropped off at the registrar's office at any point during the mail-in window.  And on election day, a fire station will be open from 12 to 8 pm for direct dropoff of ballots.

 

I haven't thought much about some of the other issues that might be raised, such as how to deal with those who move, or the homeless, or disparities created by the location of the fire station, but they are certainly there.

 

The newspaper cited the research of a professor of political science at U of Oregon, Patricia Southwell, who states that Oregon turnout has increased 10% since the implementation of a 1998 initiative that adopted all-mail elections.

 

Feel free to pass this on if you think it is worthwhile to do so.

 

Best,

 

Larry Molton