The Tacoma News-Tribune's Peter Callaghan rips into Secretary of State Sam Reed's propaganda: "Mail-only voting resembles one big scheme"
It took them a decade to do it, but state and county elections officials have made Washington an all-mail state through a combination of great patience, the perpetuation of myths and a fair amount of sleight of hand.Callaghan lambastes Reed's recent press release and Vote-By-Mail Report, calling it "more of a propaganda sheet ... that makes assertions with only the slimmest documentation". Callaghan is too kind. Many of its assertions are demonstrably false.
Reed's press release trumpets that
The number of people who vote by mail in general elections has climbed dramatically, jumping from 54 percent in 2000 to 88 percent in 2006and that
"The push toward voting by mail has been driven by people, not government,"Horsefeathers. The only reason that mail-in voting was at 88 percent in 2006 is because most people in the state had no choice but to vote by mail after government officials closed their polling places. And if it's really "driven by people, not government", why did King County think it had to spend over $300,000 to try to convince more people to vote by mail?
In addition to a lot of soaring hype, cherry-picked facts, and deliberate downplaying of the error-prone complexity, inaccuracy and opportunity for inconvenience with mail voting, the taxpayer-funded "report" makes demonstrably false statements about the "security" of mail voting [p. 15]:
Contrary to allegations made by opponents to vote-by-mail, there have been no substantiated reports of voter coercion, such as a domineering spouse or a corrupt nursing home employee.This is an email I sent to the Secretary of State's office in 2005 when I reported an irrefutable case of nursing home employees voting on behalf of disabled residents. If these reports were "unsubstantiated" it was only because the Secretary of State's staff refused to look seriously at them.
Following the 2004 General Election and the subsequent gubernatorial recounts, both political parties spent a combined total of $6.5 million contesting the election and attempting to prove that fraud occurred during the course of the election. Despite the numerous problems with the election cited by the judge, none were directly linked to voting by mail.Also demonstrably false. Much of the excess of votes over voters was attributable to people who voted more than once using mail ballots. Part of the reason these specific facts never made it into the trial is because the Secretary of State's Office lied to the public and helped cover-up the fact that the excess of votes over voters was as serious as it really was. Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at November 06, 2007 03:10 PM | Email This
I live near Cougar Mtn and LOVE going to the polling place to cast my vote. There were quite a few people there lined up; they even tried to push computer voting, but I like the tactile sensation from holding the ballot.
The other day I found on King County's site that because of delays in implementation, this election day would still have polling locations often, so don't believe it's smooth sailing.
Maybe if we push enough we can stop the momentum; I don't understand at all how after the 2004 debaucle someone can convince themselves that mail only balloting is more foolproof. It just makes it easier for ballots to get 'lost' and for illegal aliens to vote.
Posted by: Linlithgow on November 6, 2007 05:33 PMI'm so sick of Reed that I'd just as soon give anyone running against that clown money, regardless of party, in the hopes we can get rid of that weasel.
Posted by: Hinton on November 6, 2007 06:32 PMThis is complete and utter nonsense. You have a secret ballot because of the OPPORTUNITY for such problems to occur, not because they DO occur. Because our right to vote is far too important to trust that this won't happen in the future.
Also, of course, you probably WOULDN'T know, anyway.
Also, you wouldn't know if votes are being literally bought: you mark your ballot and seal it in front of me, I pay you for your vote. And I can check online to make sure your ballot has been received.
Posted by: pudge on November 7, 2007 10:01 AM2005: 49.68%
2003: 40.25%
2001: 46.79%
1999: 59.33%
1997: 56.25%
Granted, what races are on the ballot matters, but this year we have some big initiatives AND a very close sheriff race. You'd think this would be one of the big turnout years.
Let's look at the other years, with 2006 being the first with all-mail voting:
2006: 62.28%
2004: 84.31%
2002: 56.91%
2000: 74.94%
1998: 62.14%
1996: 76.08%
No real difference there (from other non-president/governor years), but to me, that's expected: those elections are much more well-publicized, so people are less likely to forget to mail in their ballot.
If there's a specific day to vote, and you go to the polling place, you plan for it, a week or two or more in advance. You are not likely to forget because you know that on that day, you will leave early for work/stop by on the way home/etc. But in the off-year elections, you figure you'll vote when you get around to it, and next thing you know, it's too late. That's likely to be far more common.
Posted by: pudge on November 7, 2007 10:14 AM