The State Assembly will vote today on a new bill that would tap
San Benito County and several others for all-mail ballot elections
for the next five years in an attempt to raise voter turnout and
bring down the state’s election costs.
Hollister – The State Assembly will vote today on a new bill that would tap San Benito County and several others for all-mail ballot elections for the next five years in an attempt to raise voter turnout and bring down the state’s election costs.
The bill, authored by Assemblywoman Carol Liu (D-La Cañada Flintridge), targets seven counties that “represent a clear cross-section of California’s population and geography” for the five-year trial period, according to a press release. If the bill passes, San Benito County voters would use mail-in ballots for local, special, primary and general elections through 2011.
“I’m real excited about it. I just hope that the committee sends it on to be voted yes on, because it’s a real opportunity for the county to raise the percentage of voter turn-out,” said San Benito County Head Elections Official John Hodges. “So I think it’s quite an honor to be picked for a pilot program from all the counties in the state.”
Hodges said Monday San Benito County’s voter turnout is average in comparison to the rest of the state, sometimes a little better, ranging from as high as 78 percent in high-profile elections to as low as 40 percent in others.
“I see voter participation going way up (with an all-mail ballot),” Hodges said.
The idea behind increasing voter turnout through the vote-by-mail system is simple: If voters don’t have to venture outside to wait in line at a polling place where they may feel rushed in making their choices, and can instead mull over their ballots in the privacy of their own home and on their own schedule, they’re more likely to vote.
This was found to be the case in Oregon, where residents voted to make every election all-mail in 1998. In 1998 before the vote-by-mail system began, Oregon reported the 10th highest voter turn-out in the country, according to Liu’s Press Secretary Candice Chung. By 2004, Oregon had the fourth highest voter turn-out in the country. The success of Oregon’s vote-by-mail system is now the inspiration for Liu’s bill.
The average cost of a vote-by-mail election is about 30 percent less than a traditional polling place election, according to Liu’s office. Between the costs of setting up voting equipment, leasing space for polling places and paying poll workers, San Benito County usually spends about $50,000 on an election, Hodges said.
Along with San Benito County, Calaveras, Mendocino, San Mateo, Santa Cruz, Sierra and Ventura counties have also been selected to participate in the program if the bill passes.
Serving as an experimental microcosm of the state as a whole, the seven rural, medium-sized and urban counties would file reports with the state after each all-mail ballot election on how much each costs to run and how much voter turn-out increased. The legislature will evaluate the system’s success or failure in the seven counties in 2011 and decide whether to implement the program statewide.
Although San Benito County recently received $500,000 in state grants for new touch-screen voting equipment under the 2002 Help America Vote Act, Hodges said his office will be waiting to see whether Liu’s bill passes before making any purchases. Counties that don’t use polling places aren’t mandated under HAVA to have modernized equipment, so San Benito might need some relatively inexpensive new absentee-style ballot-reading equipment, but nothing else, Hodges said.
Jessica Quandt covers politics for the Free Lance. Reach her at 831-637-5566 ext. 330 or at [email protected].
