Despite the startlingly low voter turnout for the county’s first
all-mail ballot election Tuesday, head elections official John
Hodges says he’s still hoping a state Assembly bill that would
allow San Benito County to become a trial area for a statewide
all-mail ballot election becomes law.
Hollister – Despite the startlingly low voter turnout for the county’s first all-mail ballot election Tuesday, head elections official John Hodges says he’s still hoping a state Assembly bill that would allow San Benito County to become a trial area for a statewide all-mail ballot election becomes law.
At least one state legislator feels the same way. Assemblywoman Carol Liu, D-La Cañada Flintridge, authored Assembly Bill 867, which would make San Benito and six other counties Vote by Mail or “VBM” counties through 2011. If the bill passes the legislature and is signed into law by the governor, the county would serve as a trial area until 2011 to help legislators decide if they want to implement the VBM system statewide. Liu believes the VBM system would increase voter turnout and significantly reduce elections costs throughout California.
The bill narrowly failed a vote in the Assembly Elections committee last month, but was approved after reconsideration a week later and is awaiting a vote in the Assembly Appropriations committee. If passed, the bill will head to a Senate committee for approval.
San Benito County just finished its first mail-in election this week with Hazel Hawkins Hospital’s Measure L, a bond measure to secure $31.5 million for hospital expansion. Even though only 37 percent of registered voters participated in Tuesday’s election, compared to about 73 percent in last November’s election, Hodges still said he thought an all-mail ballot would improve voter turnout.
“It’s kind of hard to compare that (Nov. 2004) election because it’s a different kind of election,” Hodges said of the difference between the county’s traditional polling-place election in November 2004 and this week’s mail-in Measure L election. “(November was) a federal election, which brings a lot of voters out. And on the ballot there was a lot of voting taking place, and this time there was only one ballot item. So I would think that the (Measure L voter turn-out) percentage is low in comparison to, really, what? We don’t have anything to make a comparison.”
Hodges also said an all-mail election would dramatically decrease the cost of holding elections in San Benito County. He said the Measure L election cost the county a little over $40,000, but a traditional election for Measure L would have cost around $125,000.
“An all-mail ballot would save lots of money and it’s easier to manage,” Hodges said.
He also said the Measure L election was an efficient way to allow voters to cast their ballots. He said only 12 mail-in ballots were returned after the voting deadline, and the ease of counting mail ballots reduces human errors in the election process.
“There’s a lot of work and cost in setting up the poll places, getting the 150 to 175 poll workers, schooling them, setting up their ballot boxes and voting machines, tearing everything down the next day,” Hodges explained. “There’s an awful lot of work for putting on an election whereas compared to an all-mail ballot it’s just day and night. There’s a lot less pressure, a lot less chance of human error because the more people you have touching ballots the greater chance there is for error.”
Assemblyman Mike Villines, R-Clovis, however, worried the VBM system would open elections for voter fraud when he voted against the measure in the Assembly Elections Committee. He also said voters can already vote by mail with an absentee ballot if they choose to. But Hodges said the opportunity for voter fraud in a all-mail election is slim in San Benito County because his office compares signatures on every mail-in ballot with those on the voter’s registration card to make sure they match before counting the vote.
The impetus behind Liu’s bill is the success of a similar bill passed in Oregon in 1998. Based on statistics from Oregon’s all-mail elections, the VBM system can increase voter turnout and lower election costs by an average of 30 percent, according to information from Liu’s office.
If the bill passes through all the necessary hoops in the Assembly and State Senate, San Benito, Calaveras, Mendocino, San Mateo, Santa Cruz, Sierra and Ventura Counties will all participate in wholly VBM elections through January 2011. Based on the system’s success or failure in the cross-section of rural, medium-sized and urban counties, state legislators will then decide whether to institute an all-mail system throughout the entire state.
Jessica Quandt covers politics for the Free Lance. Reach her at 831-637-5566 ext. 330 or at [email protected].
