January 1, 2005
Vote by MailOregon’s Secretary of State,
Bill Bradbury has a piece on
voting by mail in today’s Washington Post.
While many states were embroiled in fights over touch-screen voting machines and provisional ballots and struggling to find enough people to staff polling places, Oregon once again quietly conducted a presidential election with record turnout and little strife.
Perhaps now that we’ve had two badly run presidential elections in a row, Oregon’s innovation will get some respect. Please forward this article to your congressional representatives! Going to a national vote-by-mail system presents a reasonable solution to many of the problems experienced in Florida and Ohio.
Vote by mail works. It’s cheaper, turnout is higher, and it provides an automatic paper trail. The biggest criticism I hear about it now is that people miss going to their polling places because of the social aspect. On the other hand, they like having two weeks to sit down with the state-provided
Voters’ Guide and think about what and who they’re voting for.
Concerned voters everywhere should push this solution to their state legislators, as they’re the ones who can truly pass election reform. It’s so reasonable–and it saves money.
Link:
http://www.reachm.com/amstreet/archives/2005/01/01/vote-by-mail/