If all States had vote by mail like Oregon...

[Viva_Daddy]

- it would eliminate the problem of hackable voting machines;
- it would eliminate the problem of long lines at the poles;
- there would be a paper trail that could be checked for accuracy;
- and it would give the Postal Service some much needed money.

How about it?

[hrmjustin]

1. It would raise turnout, but in some states mail fraud could be an issue.

It will never happen, but it may be a good thing. You might get 10-20 million more people to vote.

[Blue Belle]

20. Oregon has polling locations...

Where you can physically drop off your ballot. That way you don't have to pay for postage and be secure in knowing that your ballot was delivered.

[valerief]

2. But how easily would Adelson get a return on his investment?

It's those things that make All States-All Mail a pipe dream. Adelsons run our world.

[Bluenorthwest]

35. Apparently they don't run Oregon, so what's with the rest of you rolling over for

such forces? Oh, and by the way, Washington is now all vote by mail as well. I like to note that in 2010, when so many States saw Republicans win and turn outs low, Oregon had the largest turn out for a midterm since the 80's.....
But Oregon and Washington did it, you could too. There can not be an 'all States all mail' law because such laws are up to the individual States. Oregon and Washington did it. Not sure why we can but you can not....

[Wounded Bear]

3. As a citizen of the other state (WA) with all mail in voting.....

I heartily agree.

[Salviati]

4. Me too.

I was voting in all the major elections before I moved to WA, but now I'm voting in all the primaries and all the purely local elections too. It's great!

[MFM008]

30. WA here 2

concurring with my fellow Washingtonian.

[ChazII]

5. No stamp needed in AZ

the postage is already paid on our ballots.

[99th_Monkey]

28. Wow. That's great. I wish Oregon would too.

that way no one can whine about the postage being a "poll tax"

[DreamGypsy]

6. In Oregon, the vote doesn't have to be delivered by U.S. Mail ...

...the ballot can be dropped off at any County Elections Office or a designated dropsite.

What happens if someone decides to blowup a designated dropsite? Well, I don't know that we've worked that out yet.

If the election comes down to warfare, maybe it's too late...

I vote in Oregon. I vote for Oregon's voting system.

[neverforget]

7. I love my Vote by Mail! I can take my time researching the ballot measures and the other people

down ballot.

[Liberal Gramma]

8. Coincidence?

That two of the bluest states in the country vote by mail?

[truebluegreen]

9. Yes, and I wonder how blue some other states would look

if they had it too

[Amak8]

22. Gore only won by 7K votes

[former9thward]

44. Yes, coincidence.

In AZ we have vote by mail for anyone who wants it and it is pretty red.

[Arugula Latte]

46. It's gotten to the point where Republicans can't get elected to statewide office here in Oregon.

They can elect local state congressmen and state senators, and they have one giant very rural district that always elects a Republican to the U.S. Congress, and that is it. The rest of the congressional districts send Democrats to DC, the Governor has been a D since the early 90s, we get the Sec. of State office, and so on.

[pa28]

10. Vote by mail solves most of the supposed "fraud" problems Republicans scream about.

They hate it anyway.

They hate it because we all get equal access. Republicans can't limit the number of voting machines in an unfriendly precinct or change vote tabulations with no paper trail.

HAVA made a bad situation worse. We need real election reform and a national system of vote by mail would be a great place to start.

[ErikJ]

16. NO PHOTO ID NEEDED EITHER

Which is the main GOP tactic now.

[judesedit]

11. Is it too late to implement this for Nov 6th? I would love to be able to turn my absentee ballot in

to my local campaign office and have them send it to be counted somewhere safe. Is it possible?

[Retrograde]

12. Where are you?

There are a number of states that have no-excuse absentee voting, which is for all intents the same as vote by mail. In my state (California) you can turn your ballot into any city hall in the county prior to election day, or at any polling place in the county on election day. Can't turn them into a campaign office, though.

[former9thward]

45. Normally it is illegal for other people to handle absentee ballots.

Unless they are specifically designated by law and campaign offices are not.

[defacto7]

13. I Love my Home State Oregon

This is the perfect election method. This is the way it should be to route out the rats.

It's a great way to have a voting party too.

I miss Oregon.

The state I live in now I can spell with 4 letters.... HELL.

[Bluenorthwest]

36. Voting parties rock....

nt

[OnlinePoker]

14. How do they avoid someone getting another person's ballot and voting?

I'm thinking of what I've seen here in B.C. where they had vote by mail on our HST referendum and people were throwing the ballot in their recycle bins...anyone could take them (this was brought up in one of the apartments in town where the junk mail recycling bin near the mail slots were full of the ballots).

[davepdx]

15. Your signature on the exterior envelope has to match your signature on file.

In Oregon your ballot is placed inside a couple of envelopes. The outer envelope has a place for your signature. When the ballot is received the signature is verified against a digitized copy of your signature. After signature verification the inner security envelope containing your ballot is then taken and put in place for counting. If there is any issue with the outer envelope then you are contacted to reconcile any issues, ie. mismatched signature, before your ballot envelope is separated.

A side benefit of having your signature verified is that your ballot receipt is recorded electronically. The organizations that call people for get out the vote programs will get their next day calling list that will absent your name and number - no more calls. After a day or two you can then check online to make sure that your ballot has been received in advance of the actual election day.

[OnlinePoker]

18. Nice, but I'm assuming you have to preregister somehow?

Otherwise how would they get your signature? Is there voter ID required to register for the vote?

[Blue Belle]

21. You can register to vote at the DMV...

You can also do it online.

[99th_Monkey]

29. I didn't know you could register on-line in Oregon

I live in Oregon but didn't know that.

How does the new voter's signature get on file with the Elections Office
when one registers on-line?

[davepdx]

48. You can get the form online but

you have to print it, fill it out, sign it, and send it in.

[99th_Monkey]

52. Ahh! I see. Thanks.

I'm already registered, just curious how the on-line thing works.

[davepdx]

56. It appears that if you have an Oregon Drivers License that you can

register to vote online. The ODL already (mine has at least) has a digitized signature so that would already be "on file."
https://secure.sos.state.or.us/orestar/vr/register.do?lang=eng

[davepdx]

43. You can register to vote at the DMV's or download a registration form online.

If you download the registration form you must print it out, fill it in, sign it and send it in.

Here's a link to the voter registration form:
http://oregonvotes.org/doc/publications/forms/500_nvra/SEL500.pdf

There is a description on the form about the forms of ID required.

[renate]

19. I didn't know that about the phone calls

It's never been a problem at our house so I didn't know about the fancy calling list--cool! I also didn't know about being able to check online. Damn do I love Oregon.

[davepdx]

47. I may have made an error about online checking.

Lack of sleep. Sorry. You may have to call your elections office in order to find out if your ballot has been received. Online access may or may not work. I recall that I've called to check before but I'm not certain if I've had success with online checking. It very well may work. You can check your voting status online here:
https://secure.sos.state.or.us/orestar/vr/showVoterSearch.do

That link indicates that you can track your ballot. I *think* it works but I am not 100% certain.

[renate]

17. the election officials have to match the signature on the ballot...

... with the person's signature on file.

In my part of town, the recycling bins are ENORMOUS--bigger than a regular garbage can--because pickup is only every two weeks and you can put everything but glass in there. I think someone would have to be pretty damn determined to steal someone's vote by digging through a huge garbage can on the off chance that there's a ballot in there. Plus, until the recycling bin was rolled out onto the street, they'd have to trespass onto private property to do it. It's possible, I guess, but I also assume the signature-matching thing is for real and not just for CYA.

I'm not minimizing your concern, but in the real world it seems pretty unlikely. I think the best part of voting by mail is that it doesn't disenfranchise people who have to work long hours or don't have transportation to a polling place. There are lots of drop-off boxes for people who can't afford stamps (although I do think that the ballots would ideally be postage-paid).

[davepdx]

49. You can also take your time to deliberate about your choices.

Voters are also not disenfranchised by people claiming that you aren't a registered voter when you enter the polling place either.

Having the voter's guide available for each election is helpful too. You can take your time and do any research needed without feeling rushed. I've always found that many of the down-ballot elections and initiatives take more time to decide because I may not be familiar to the degree that I want with some of the individuals running or the particulars about some of the ballot initiatives. I always felt rushed when voting in person and that isn't an issue with vote by mail.

I also prefer to drop my ballot off at the county elections office. It is there where I've actually seen some of the elections officials doing the signature evaluations.

[BlueMTexpat]

23. As an expat, I routinely vote absentee.

My voting residence is in Maryland, also a blue state.

This year, we have the option of receiving our absentee ballots by email or snail mail. I elected to receive mine by email and received my ballot last weekend. We are assigned an individual code to retrieve our ballot and need to print out the ballot, sign an oath that we are a US citizen and that we have not voted anywhere else and return the oath and ballot by snail mail.

Then we can use our code to sign in and see whether our ballots have been received and, after the election, whether our votes were counted. If we don't want to pay postage, we can use special facilities available through the US consular services. Those facilities are available for all US citizens abroad. Frankly, however, I don't mind paying postage - the local mail system is excellent - and I prefer to ensure that my ballot is returned well in advance of the deadline.

Hurrah for Maryland as well and for any other states that actually facilitate the voting rights of their residents, whether at home or abroad!

And my vote is proudly cast for President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden, as well as for my Dem Senator Ben Cardin and my Dem Rep Elijah Cummings (both of whom look to be very safe incumbents).

But I take nothing for granted.

[davidpdx]

31. Oregon does vote by email as well for overseas voters

They send the ballot as a .pdf file, then you print it out and fill it out. After that you have the option of mailing it or scanning it and returning it via email. I returned my primary ballot via email. This works especially well in Korea since there is a big holiday in September or October that shuts down the mail for several days. I always worried about getting my ballot with enough time to turn around and get it back.

I got my primary ballot on April 11th for the May 15th election so I'm expecting my email ballot pretty soon.

[BlueMTexpat]

40. OR leads the way -

we don't yet have email return in MD. Good luck to you!

[tavalon]

24. Do you have a solution for the optical scanners that are going to read our ballots, maybe,

correctly, maybe fraudulently. My state also has mail in ballots, but without voter verified paper ballots, I have no way of knowing whether my ballot is counted correctly. None whatsoever.

[Amak8]

25. How is that different from e-voting machines?

Your vote goes down the memory hole. Who knows if it gets counted.

[99th_Monkey]

27. It's all about PAPER Ballots

that can be counted and recounted as needed, by hand
if necessary.

I live in Oregon where we have vote-by-mail and I LOVE it.

It gives people time to sit down with all the information and
go through it methodically and "get it right" without all the
pressure of having a long line behind me waiting for my
voting booth, not to mention not having to wait in line for
God knows how long to even get to vote.

[bahrbearian]

32. Only if there is a Hand Count, The Opti-scan can be hacked.

[Bluenorthwest]

37. And a hand count can be fixed, and frequently have been in the past...

That's why hand counts are also a scenario of much security, counts, recounts, you name it. There is no system that is without the possiblitity of cheating. The goal is the best possible security and the widest access to voters.

[bahrbearian]

38. When and were has that happened,?

[Retrograde]

50. Florida in 2000?

where a number of votes were assigned to a particular candidate based on what the examiner thought the voter intended, or where the ballots were handled so much that some of them were (I'll give them the benefit of the doubt) inadvertently damaged?

Then there was a San Francisco election earlier this century where a few boxes of ballots were found in the bay.

I still vote by mail for convenience, but every voting system can be hacked some way.

[99th_Monkey]

53. Perhaps, but if there are major deviations from exit polls

the PAPER BALLOTS can and will be recounted BY HAND, at
least in OREGON.

[bahrbearian]

57. There seems to be alot of deviation in the last 10 years

I'm in Washington I love Absentee Ballots, we must remain vigilant.

[99th_Monkey]

58. Washington state or DC?

I thought Washington state had vote-by-mail.

[Sirveri]

33. I was thinking the same thing. They won't hand count unless it is 'close'.

But if the computer is hacked, then the vote doesn't ever need to be close. Just flip 1:20 votes or 1:10 votes and you win without need of a recount. Get caught and claim that the reader lens was smudged and needs to be cleaned.

I'm not oppossed to a first pass optical scanner, so long as it's open source and secure and followed by a hand count.

[tavalon]

54. I'm with you, Sirveri

[99th_Monkey]

26. Vote By Mail ALSO totally eliminates the "voter fraud" canard by Rethuglicans.

People get their ballots in the US Mail, with THEIR NAME
on the envelope. Not really any opportunity to defraud
the system.

BTW - I LIVE IN OREGON AND LOVE VOTE BY MAIL.

Personally, I think it's one reason we're still such a blue
state; as it's very difficult to vote fraudulently here, and
the PAPER ballots can be counted and recounted as
needed.

[LWolf]

34. I love vote by mail.

I would hate to go back to a system where I had to try to get to a polling place before or after my very long day at work, stand in line, stand in a tight little voting booth, and rush through the process.

I like sitting in my arm chair in my robe, with a cup of something to drink, reading my voter's pamphlet and researching people, issues, and measures when necessary. I can mark a few votes, set it aside, and come back later, until it's finally done.

I like that my ballot is always mailed back (or dropped off) well before election day. Of course, the big push in the last week is wasted on me, since I'm already done.

I think any state that tries will like it, too.

[Courtesy Flush]

39. It would also encourage higher voter participation

There's the rub. They don't want us to vote.

[OregonBlue]

41. It is wonderful. I can sit down with my ballot and my computer and research the ballot

initiative and also local elections and judgeships. The ballots come out in plenty of time so you can actually think about those things.

[robinlynne]

42. Unfortunately, most counties outsource vote by mail to the ES&S Corporation.

It is, therefore, the most easily hackable type of voting. A private corporation, owned by the right, print ballots, mails ballots (to the correct address? sometimes), receives the ballots, verifies the signatures by MACHINE, with a high medium and low switch. I would absolutely never vote by mail unless there is no other choice in the world.
no better than voting on a machine. counted by the exact same corporation which brought us the machines.

80% of America's votes are counted by computer. Same thing as voting on a computer.

[bkkyosemite]

51. I live in So. Oregon

I have been here for about 4+ years coming from CA. Much better to vote by mail. When I first came here it was for Obama's election. I was very much into Brad's blog. I called the elections office here in town to see how the system worked. Talking to the head of elecitons here I told her of the fraud being found all over and what could she tell me to erase my fears of the votes not being counted correctly. I told her about a video I had seen about how a election official said that their county's tabulator in no way was inaccurate. I continued to tell her that they picked a few people and they all did a mock vote not telling who they voted for. It came up totally wrong and there was shock on the face of the election office official. She asked if I would send her that video so I did. She assured me (as assured as she could be) that they are constantly checking for accuracy and are very much into making sure the tabulators are working correctly. I live in a very red county and Obama won by 27 votes. The repubs here were to say the least in shock.

[countryjake]

55. Main thing I love about it up here in WA state...

is that it encourages informed voting...everyone has the time to thoroughly examine what's on their ballots, search for info on each issue and candidate if they want, and vote with a better knowledge of the elections. That's definitely a plus!

We use the drop-box in town to deliver our ballots, so no added benefit for the Postal Service from us, but you're right, that is another good thing about voting by mail.