Vote by mail should be a bipartisan issue.
It needs bipartisan advocates.
We have them: Oregon and Utah.
Everyone understands Utah is red. Utah is the strait-laced, LDS-dominated, corny, Eagle Scout, all-American archetype of family-values Republican red. It is red without irony or apology. It is old-school red, small town red. Utah's reputation for redness is secure.
The reputations of these two states are a national asset. They offer credibility and reassurance to partisans of both parties. Both states use vote by mail. Elected officials with knowledge and experience know it works. They say so publicly.
Oregon now has a Democrat as our chief election official, the Secretary of State, elected in 2020. The 2020 election was overseen by Republican Beverly Clarno, who filled the unexpired term of Republican Dennis Richardson. Oregon's 2020 election went off without problems. In April, 2021, after reviewing the referrals from county clerks and the questions raised by skeptics, Secretary of State Shemia Fagan wrote, "To be clear, there is no reason to doubt the security and results of the 2020 election. In fact, there is every reason to trust their accuracy and security."
However, she said she realized mail voting is under attack. "We are not immune to the poison of misinformation. Despite becoming the nation's first all vote by mail state over 20 years ago, and where Republicans and Democrats alike have served as Secretaries of State," there remains distrust of vote-by-mail, she said. It is due to "misinformation and disinformation" in an echo chamber of social media and "some media outlets."
Democrat Fagan from Oregon has little credibility to change minds within that echo chamber. Republican voters have heard from better-trusted voices that mail voting is irredeemably corrupt. Fagan is on team blue. Why trust her?
Utah's election went smoothly, too. Their chief election office is their Lieutenant Governor. In 2020 their Lt. Governor was Spencer Cox, a Republican. He was on the ballot for governor and he won. He said there was "no evidence of mass voter fraud" either in Utah or nationally. The new Lt. Governor, Deidre Henderson, also a Republican, vouched for the safety and quality of the Utah vote-by-mail system. "I'm confident in the integrity of our elections."
Utah election officials have credibility with Republicans. Oregon election officials have credibility with Democrats. That is the opportunity. Together, the election officials of the two states could meet to declare mail voting to be a safe, indeed superior, system. The joint message demonstrates with body language that there is no hidden, secret advantage to one party or another. It isn't a devious plot. Mail ballots elect people of both parties.
Governor Cox took time in his State of the State address this week to bemoan the "unsubstantiated claims and flat-out lies" that have undermined faith in elections. Governor Cox is sending a message Oregon should welcome:
As a conservative, I believe that we should always work to make constitutional rights more accessible, not less. I am very proud that voter participation has increased since I became lieutenant governor and now governor. We can have safe and secure elections without making it harder to exercise our constitutional right to vote.”
Oregon's Fagan and Brown could say the same thing, changing only the opening words to "As a Democrat." The time is ripe. The nation is debating voting access. There is misinformation shaping the debate. Republicans are distrustful. Oregon and Utah, standing together with the same message, makes a powerful statement.
Oregon, pick up the phone. Call Utah.
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8 comments:
Oregon’s previous vote by mail system was working smoothly, but the last Oregon legislator could not leave well enough alone. What did they do that was so horrible you may ask? The last session approved a change to what votes would be counted if they are MAILED and POSTMARKED on Election Day instead of received by close of the polls normal time of 8 PM. Currently votes, other then absentee ballots are NOT COUNTED if they are received late. This might seem to be minor unless you consider the consequences of having votes dribble in over the next week to verify who won.
We allow absentee ballots and service personnel ballots to come in late due to the problems of transportation and distances involved in returning the ballots. That rule was in place when we were going to the polls to vote. The absentee ballots overseas and military personnel are a subset of the voting electorate but they are a known quantity. So if the votes between who won and who lost is larger than the number of votes coming back the election can be called and the absentee ballots would be counted in the case of a recount and the same for ballot measures that appear on absentee ballots. If the votes are within the margin than the “who won” decision must wait for the absentee and military ballots to be counted.
We shouldn’t tinker with what was working. Trump has made enough stink about with his Big Lie that has caused us to need to look under the hood and see what exactly is happening.
Here’s what my county does. The linkage to my county board of elections has a website that sends me messages: Your ballot was mailed to you. Your ballot was received. Your ballot was counted. If you don’t get the message that your vote was received I can go to the board of election office and cast another ballot in-person up to 8 PM Election Day. Now if the mail system does deliver your completed mailed in ballot it will not be counted. How it it possible to guarantee that? Remember the bar code on your envelop, it identifies you when it’s read by the scanner and kicks it out of the ballot scanning process if you voted in person thus preventing a double count. But once the ballot is out of the envelope it has no coding marks to track it, keeping your vote secret. Nice, simple and clean. The vote tally machines are not connect to the internet! The counting machines are checked and verified accurate before actual tallies occur. Look back on one of Peter’s blog posts when this election integrity issues arose.
Utah is the only "red" state out of the six that vote by mail. Probably because Republicans outnumber Democrats by 3-1. Many of the new Republican voting laws include limiting VBM.
I put VBM in the same category as legalizing marijuana. Is it coming? Certainly, one day grasshopper, but not anytime soon.
It doesn't take much vision to see a future where we'll be able to vote online. Obviously there has to be a breakthrough for security, and I would expect there are geniuses working on it, something along the lines of two point authentication.
Important:
Oregon changed Vote-by-Mail to now include pre-paid postage. Last time I checked, Oregon is using business reply/franked postage, not stamps. These are usually NOT postmarked. Oregon does NOT affix postage stamps.
So...how does Oregon plan to verify when it's postmarked?
Overall, I think vote-by-mail is fine. Some of the "sturm and drang" over the changes made in some states was because legislation was not done to make these changes to the election process. Those states did not already have systems in place to properly audit the results.
Some states require a reason to vote absentee. Some make vote by mail easy. Some make it difficult. A simple emergency order by a governor is not the same as legislating the matter, and making sure the Secretary of State and/or Election Office of each state have systems in place to properly run an election and count votes with precision.
I doubt if anyone here in Oregon knows how each state made sure that their new voting process was as secure as they expect it to be. I'm not talking about fraud concerns, but rather that mistakes may have been made due to the lack of experience with large scale vote by mail.
I have anecdotal info about people who received multiple ballots due to their several addresses, and the fact that unlike drivers licenses, it is easy to be registered in multiple locations.
After I registered to vote in Florida, I had to write letters to my Oregon Election Office to unregister from Oregon. There was no automatic voting unregistration from Oregon when I registered in Florida.
I wonder how many people actually unregister when they move?
And for the comment above about Red States not being able to vote by mail: I vote by mail for Florida elections, as does my wife and son, and many, many others. Or perhaps it really is that I vote absentee. Florida has made that easy. No restrictions, other than we made a choice, and we are asked periodically to reaffirm that choice.
In 2020, Trump admitted that if they made it easier to vote in the U.S., “you’d never have a Republican elected in this country again.” Lindsey Graham quickly parroted that sentiment: “If we don't do something about voting by mail, we are going to lose the ability to elect a Republican in this country."
Republicans have spent the past year spreading lies about election fraud and trying to make it more difficult to vote, not easier. Don’t hold your breath waiting for vote-by-mail to catch on in states with Republican legislatures.
Ballots are not forwarded per USPS change-of-address rules.
Peter--
This is your key message:
"Utah election officials have credibility with Republicans. Oregon election officials have credibility with Democrats. That is the opportunity. Together, the election officials of the two states could meet to declare mail voting to be a safe, indeed superior, system. The joint message demonstrates with body language that there is no hidden, secret advantage to one party or another. It isn't a devious plot. Mail ballots elect people of both parties."
I don't expect ballots to be forwarded.
I do expect that states could work together on registration like they do for drivers licenses. The systems do communicate to make duplicate licenses in multiple states hard. But not impossible.
People should not get multiple ballots. I can see how previous occupants at an address might result in current resident to get their own ballot, along with ballots intended for previous occupants.
Vote by mail is one way in which Oregon is a national leader. End of Life Options is another.
I'm surprised to read about Idaho allowing vote by mail. As is often the case with red states, the blue states are probably subsidizing it.
But this is a good idea.
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