The bill that would make San Benito County a test site for
all-mail elections has stalled in committee and won’t be revisited
until 2006. We hope it won’t die, and ask our state legislators
Assemblyman Simon Salinas, D-Salinas, and state Sen. Jeff Denham,
R-Merced, to play a role in reviving it for the next session.
The bill that would make San Benito County a test site for all-mail elections has stalled in committee and won’t be revisited until 2006. We hope it won’t die, and ask our state legislators Assemblyman Simon Salinas, D-Salinas, and state Sen. Jeff Denham, R-Merced, to play a role in reviving it for the next session.
Pundits, politicians and newspapers have long bemoaned the slide in voter participation throughout the state and nation. This bill, AB 867, gives us an opportunity to see if a different approach will draw more people into the democratic process. It would make San Benito and six other counties test sites for all-mail elections. As the bill stands now, it would last five years, at which time the state would analyze the results and decide whether to make it a statewide program.
The bill was inspired by the success of Oregon’s all-mail ballot instituted in 1998. Oregon was 10th in the nation for voter turnout before going to the mail ballot system. Afterwards, Oregon boasted the nation’s fourth-highest voter turnout. Those are encouraging results worth seeing if we can duplicate here.
In San Benito County, 78 percent of voters have gone to polls during an exciting or heated a race. On the other hand, the recent Measure L hospital bond, which was a mail-in election, only drew 36 percent of the voters. But a one-issue ballot in May does not provide a fair benchmark. Giving mail ballots a full run through several election cycles, including a presidential election, to see if it will work will give us the clearest picture of its effectiveness.
San Benito County Elections Official John Hodges, who maintains 27 polling stations and hires about 175 elections workers every election, estimates that a vote by mail system could save the county tens of thousands of dollars each election.
Still, the delay in the bill could be a blessing in disguise. There are a number of concerns that must be adequately addressed to make this a success, and now there is time to work them out.
There seems to be a potential for sloppiness when turning ballots over to the United States Postal Service. So, we want clear guidelines to address:
n A process to verify that ballots are received
n The post office’s ability to handle the increase in mail
n Delivering the ballots to elections officials in a timely fashion
Once those precautions are addressed, the possibility of increasing voter turnout and cutting down on election costs in our county make this a worthwhile experiment. We hope that our state representatives will take a hand in making this happen.
