Voting by mail only
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Systems that include voting by mail only have also been called "forced mail voting". It has been argued that these systems are proposed in order to reduce work for the elections officials, not to make elections more secure. This system is also known as VBM.
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Jurisdictions
All elections are conducted by mail in Oregon and large parts of Washington State.
Arguments in favor of VBM
- Voter participation: It increases turnout -- 84 percent of registered Oregonians voted in 2006.
- Convenience: People can vote according to their schedule.
- Education: People have time to study issues and candidates before voting.
- Fraud protection: It has built-in safeguards that increase the integrity of the elections process.
- Built-in paper trail.
- Voter eligibility: Built-in time to resolve disputes.
- Actual results are released when polls close as opposed to unreliable "exit polls."
- Financial: It saves money.
Arguments against VBM
- Voter participation: Disagreement over whether it increases turnout; Oregon had high turnout before it introduced VBM.
- Education: Those who submit votes early cannot take account of information that surfaces at the end of the campaign.
- Fraud protection: Ballots pass through the mail, a process that adds points of vulnerability.
- Erosion of ballot secrecy: Since the voter can be pressured to let another person see the marked ballot before mailing it, voting is subject to coercion or bribes, which can be overt or subtle and social.
Legislation
In October 2006, Oregon Senator Ron Wyden, along with co-sponsors Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) and Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) introduced S.4018, The Vote By Mail Act of 2006. This federal legislation would provide grant money for states or localities to transition to Vote By Mail elections. To read the entire bill, go to http://thomas.loc.gov/ and search for S. 4018
One proponent of this controversial idea is the Vote By Mail Project.
External links
- diary by "zappini": "Protect Our Secret Ballot (King Co WA)" (April 26, 2007)
- National Association of Manufacturers proposes ways to encourage employee voting (absentee voting, vote by mail), primarily for "pro-business" measures (modified December 2006)
- Why Mail Ballots Are A Bad Idea by Charles E. Corry, Ph. D (modified December 2006)
- boot 1780's dKos diary linking to EAC report on absentee ballot fraud (December 8, 2006)
- Comment describing details of Oregon VBM implementation (November 30, 2006)
- Vote by Mail - How it Works - the Mechanics - DailyKos diary by VBM advocate Jeremy Wright. (November 2006)
- Paul Gronke on potentially misleading claims about Oregon VBM Gronke, in a response to Secretary of State Bill Bradbury's editorial in the Washington Post, points out that Oregon had high turnout even prior to introduction of VBM (November 2006)
- A Postal Worker Explains the Mail: How Your Registration Might be Purged (October 20, 2006)
- "Absentee Voting in a Comparative Perspective: A Preliminary Assessment of the Experiences with Postal Voting" (PDF format) submitted by Matt Qvortrup, Visiting Professor, University of Sydney, for The Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters, Australian Federal Parliament (2005 or 2006)
- Widespread fraud alleged in "postal election" in Birmingham, UK (April 4, 2005)
- summary by International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (modifed March 2005)
- Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA) -- statement on S. 565 (February 28, 2002)