State Legislatures Magazine: July/August 2001

Editor's Note: This article appeared in the July/August 2001 issue of NCSL's magazine, State Legislatures. To order copies or to subscribe, contact the marketing department at (303) 364-7700.

From the Ballot Box to the Mailbox

How It Works
Pros and Cons
New Campaign Strategies
Not for All States

From the Ballot Box to the Mailbox

Oregon voted entirely by mail last November, and there's no turning back.

By Tim Storey
The Oregon 2000 contest for the presidency marked a first in American history. Not a single Oregon voter trekked to an elementary school, church or fire station to enter a polling booth. Instead, they marked their ballots in the comfort of their own homes and dropped them in the mail. Oregon was the first state in U.S. history to determine its electoral votes for president entirely by mail. And it appears there is no looking back or yearning for the good old days.

"There's no way we'll turn back the clock on vote-by-mail," says Oregon Representative Bruce Starr.

The Oregon legislature first passed vote-by-mail in 1981 for local measures. That was only a couple of years after local governments in California used vote-by-mail for the first time. As Oregon voters gained familiarity with the mail balloting process, it became more and more popular. Eventually voters were given the choice of going to the polls or mailing in their ballots at every election. Finally in 1998, 70 percent of Oregon voters approved a ballot measure to shift all elections from the ballot box to the mailbox. The 2000 election saw the elimination of the dual track system-voters were required to vote by mailing in or dropping off completed ballots that had been mailed to all registered voters days before.

Voters have eagerly embraced vote-by-mail; one poll shows 86 percent of Oregonians support the process. And advocates boast that it has boosted voter turnout by up to 10 percent. Oregon Secretary of State Bill Bradbury proclaimed to a national commission studying election reform that vote-by-mail has clearly increased turnout and lowered election costs. He calls it a "pioneering system and a true success story." He cited the fact that nearly 80 percent of registered voters cast their ballots. But if you look at a more common measure of turnout, which is the percent of turnout among those eligible to vote, Oregon ranked 10th. Minnesota led the country with more than 67 percent. Some observers have speculated that Oregon participation would have been higher had voters not faced a daunting ballot that included 26 measures. The voters' pamphlet mailed out by the state was a record 376 pages long.

HOW IT WORKS
County officials mail out ballots to all registered Oregon voters two-and-a-half weeks before the election, along with two return envelopes. As in most states, the type of ballot varies from county to county. Some voters receive punch card ballots and others an optical scan ballot. Like many other states, the legislature is currently grappling with how to eliminate punch card ballots.

Voters complete their ballot and seal it in a "secrecy envelope" that is in turn sealed in an identification envelope signed by the voter. The voter must place a stamp on the envelope and mail it to the county election office. Ballots must arrive by 8 p.m. on Election Day-postmarks do not count. If voters do not trust the postal service to deliver the ballot or they wait until the last minute, they may drop the envelope off at a designated drop site. Election officials match the signature on the outer envelope with the one in voter registration files to ensure that the ballot is from the registered voter. On Election Day, the ballots are removed from the secrecy envelopes and counted.

More than half of the ballots returned were in the elections office on the Friday before the election. However, officials did not begin counting the ballots until Election Day, and that caused some problems. At some drop locations, long lines formed. One county clerk told the Portland Oregonian that "it was sheer bedlam." Oregon vote totals were among the last to be determined, taking more than three days after Election Day, although nowhere near the time required to sort out Florida. The nation had to wait to find out who won Oregon partly because there were no exit polls, since there were no polling places. In the end, less than 6,000 votes separated George W. Bush and Al Gore in Oregon.

PROS AND CONS
Vote-by-mail supporters are convinced that it can increase voter turnout especially in off-year elections and at the local level. When Oregon used all-mail balloting for the May 2000 primary, participation shot up 16 percent. Perhaps the strongest argument in favor of mail-in balloting is that it appears to save the taxpayers a pile of money. By some estimates, a state can run a vote-by-mail election for less than half the cost of setting up polling sites. Although the postage is a major expense, the state does not have to rent polling places or pay workers. Oregon also saves by not printing extra ballots to place in precincts in case of extraordinary turnout. And the state does not need to purchase and maintain large numbers of voting machines.

The main criticism of vote-by-mail is that it opens up the process to potential fraud. Opponents maintain that nefarious interests could make a concerted effort to collect or steal ballots and send them in with forged signatures. Deborah Phillips of the Virginia-based Voting Integrity Project is an outspoken critic, and her organization has sued Oregon to end the practice. "The mail-only ballot is an invitation to organize and mechanize fraud," she says. Oregon officials defend the system by pointing to a case where one activist attempted to send in forged ballots to discredit the process. The individual was promptly apprehended and convicted. They say that the safeguards against fraud are more than adequate to derail organized attempts to steal an election. Representative Starr acknowledges that many rumors exist about voter fraud, but says there doesn't seem to be any truth to them. "I haven't seen any real evidence of widespread fraud," he says.

Another concern voiced by opponents is that mail balloting could result in the compromise of the sacred American tradition of the secret ballot. They envision situations where a spouse might pressure a partner to vote a specific way. Or individuals might be asked to bring their ballots to a meeting and mark them according to the will of the group. One study in Oregon surveyed more than a thousand voters and asked if anyone had been coerced to vote a certain way. The study identified only one voter who responded that he had been forced to vote for a specific candidate.

Another often cited disadvantage of vote-by-mail is that it could preclude voters from knowing all the facts about candidates if events unfold close to Election Day or new information comes to light just before the election. And some have argued that requiring voters to pay for postage to return the ballots is the equivalent of a poll tax. One group unsuccessfully sued Oregon over the postage issue in federal court-an appeal is pending.

NEW CAMPAIGN STRATEGIES
Vote-by-mail has changed the way campaigns are run in Oregon. Because elections offices keep track of which voters have returned ballots, candidates can target the voters with ballots outstanding and flood them with campaign materials, calls and personal visits. This might serve as an incentive for voters to send their ballot in early.

During the 2000 election, the Bush campaign held a rally and asked supporters to bring their ballots and drop them off at collection boxes at the event. Candidates have bemoaned the fact that they must campaign intensely for a three-week period rather than turning up the intensity close to Election Day. And some have noticed that campaigning at that level for that period of time requires more money, making it even more expensive to run for office than in traditional campaigns.

NOT FOR ALL STATES
At least 17 states already allow limited use of vote-by-mail. Most of those permit mail ballots only in nonpartisan and local elections. Vote-by-mail appears to be a big hit in Oregon, but it took the state nearly 20 years to get to this point-and they are still fine-tuning the process. The culture and history of elections in some states could mean that it will be decades before vote-by-mail takes root in a widespread way.

Senator Hobb Bryan, chairman of Mississippi's Senate Elections Committee, doubts that vote-by-mail would work in his state because of the potential for fraud. He is somewhat incredulous that Oregon has not had major problems, saying, "either people in Oregon don't care enough to steal elections or they haven't figured out how to do it yet." However, Bryan goes on to say that it is important for states to have the flexibility to try innovative approaches. "Oregon, bless their hearts, can try vote-by-mail, and maybe we can learn something from it."

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