Voting by mail draws notice from other states

Supporters of the system say it's cheaper and boosts voter turnout.
SALEM, Ore. (AP) -- Nobody heads to the polls when it's time to vote in Oregon. Now other states are starting to think that's not such a bad idea.
For eight years, Oregon has been the only state whose citizens vote exclusively by mail in statewide elections, but others are moving in that direction.
Nearly 90 percent of Washington state's ballots this year, and 40 percent of California's, are expected to be mailed by voters, who are allowed to become "permanent absentees."
Counties in California and Colorado are pushing for vote-by-mail programs and Arizona may have the issue on the ballot this November.
"In 1998, people thought Oregon was quirky," said Oregon Secretary of State Bill Bradbury, a leading booster of the vote-at-home system. "Now they're taking a second look at what we've done."
Recently, state election officials began mailing 2 million optical-scan ballots for the May 16 primary, giving registered voters 18 days to mark their choices and mail them back.
One voter's view
Salem resident Mieke Visser says she enjoys gathering up her voter's pamphlet and other election materials, then taking her time marking her ballot in the comfort of her living room. She feels little nostalgia for the days when people trooped to a polling place.
"I don't miss it all that much, especially when I think back to voting in November elections, when it was usually raining and you had to stand in line," said Visser, who works as a system analyst for the state.
Backers of voting by mail say it's less expensive than having to hire poll workers to oversee voting machines, and that it often boosts voter turnout in off-year or lower-interest local elections.
When Oregon first went to mail-only ballots, naysayers said it could invite election fraud. So far, Oregon elections have been clean, state officials say.
Those assurances don't ease critics' fears.
Curtis Gans, director of the Center for the Study of the American Electorate in Washington, D.C., thinks it's all but inevitable that as vote-by-mail becomes more common, so will instances of people being coerced to vote a certain way by family members or others.
"It essentially eliminates the secret ballot," Gans said. "This process offers all kinds of potential for chicanery and fraud, with someone telling their spouse, 'This is how we're going to fill out our ballots.'"
Washington Secretary of State Sam Reed said he's seen no evidence that voting by mail has led to coercion or fraud in his state.
No evidence of fraud
Right now, 35 out of Washington state's 39 counties have vote by mail, and Reed said he thinks the state might reach 100 percent mail balloting by the 2008 election.
"People are so much on the run today," he said. "They work all day, rush home to feed the family, then rush off to Boy Scout meetings. With vote by mail, they can cast their ballot on their own time, and at their leisure."
Many other states have made absentee voting easier. Twenty-five offer voters "no excuse" absentee ballots, meaning that voters don't have to offer any reason for wanting a mail ballot, according to the Oregon secretary of state's office.
The Vote By Mail Project, a national nonpartisan advocacy group that counts Bradbury and Reed among its advisers, says Oregon's low-tech system of voting by mail eliminates potential problems that can come with high-tech voting equipment.
"There's a lot of concern about the dependability of touch-screen voting, for example," said Adam Smith, spokesman for the project. "Vote by mail may be low-tech, but it works."
But for people like Salem resident Kirk Best, the best thing about voting by mail is not having to rush through marking a ballot at a polling place.
"It's just a more contemplative way to cast your vote," said Best, who works as a management consultant.
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