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Most clerks pushing for mail ballots

Opponents believe approach too risky

By Myung Oak Kim, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published January 12, 2008 at 12:30 a.m.

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Colorado could become the third state to vote for president by mail this fall.

Oregon has been voting exclusively by mail since 2000, as have all but two counties in Washington state.

The Colorado County Clerks Association is pushing for a law allowing an all-mail election for 2008. And some legislative leaders favor that system.

But the proposal faces stiff opposition from local voting activists and some clerks, most notably Denver elections officials. And experts say the approach is risky.

With an exclusive mail system, "You've now thrown security totally out the window," said Jonathan Katz, a political science professor and election system researcher at the California Institute of Technology.

Coloradans are familiar with voting by mail. In most off-year elections, many jurisdictions use mail systems.

And more voters are used to voting by mail in all elections. Voters have been choosing absentee ballots without actually being out of state on election day since 1992, according to the secretary of state's office.

In summer, a law took effect allowing voters to become permanent mail voters and many are choosing that option.

In the 2006 general elections more than 400,000 votes - 42 percent - were cast by mail in seven of the largest counties in Colorado, according to Colorado Common Cause.

Mail voting is a great option and is especially popular among active voters, said Jenny Flanagan, executive director of Colorado Common Cause.

But her agency does not support an exclusive mail system.

"The danger of an exclusive mail program is that new voters, low income voters, minority voters - the underrepresented groups - are going to be left out of the process," she said.

In Oregon and Washington, voters drove the move toward mail-only elections, officials said. In both states the transition occurred over many years and both states count ballots with optical scan machines. Neither state has faced serious challenges from voter groups, officials said.

"We've been doing it for years and it's really the voters that like it the most," said Joanie Deutsch, spokeswoman for the Washington Secretary of State.

In Oregon, one independent study credited mail voting for a slight rise in turnout in certain elections.

Concerns about fraud, voter intimidation, vote-buying or suppressing turnout in minority communities have not been substantiated in Oregon, said Scott Moore, spokesman for the Oregon Secretary of State.

"If there is one concern that would hold up, for Colorado voters, that might be the steep transition," he said. "It's a big change."

Many county clerks want to use an all-mail system because they're comfortable with it and it's generally less expensive than operating polling sites or buying new voting equipment.

The mail system also eliminates long lines at polling sites and the potential that the new statewide voter registration database - known as SCORE - will malfunction, said Boulder County Clerk Hillary Hall.

Denver officials oppose an all-mail system because of fears that it would disenfranchise the high number of voters who want to go to the polls.

"We feel like it should be a piece of a puzzle rather than the entire puzzle," said Denver elections director Michael Scarpello.

Comments

  • January 13, 2008

    11:18 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    freethinker07 writes:

    How are mail ballots counted? Mail ballots is a way to get the ballots to the counter, not a way of counting. How are they counted?