More and more voters are saying no to polls and yes to
convenience.
Gilroy
More and more voters are saying no to polls and yes to convenience.
The number of voters in Santa Clara County who mail in their ballots has increased by more than 320,000 since 2002, when about 9,000 people voted absentee. Many candidates and election officials say the number will continue to rise since state law no longer requires voters to show they are ill or out of town to receive an absentee ballot. Anyone can vote from home now.
In fact, absentee voters are not even called “absentee voters” anymore, but “vote-by-mail” voters, because Sacramento has relaxed requirements since 2002, according to Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters spokesman Matt Moreles. The nonpartisan Web site HelpingAmericansVote.org reports that 35 states, including California, do not require excuses for absentee or early voting and that 15 states permit some form of early voting. Voters in California are allowed to register as permanent absentee voters.
More than any other state, Oregon exhibited its aversion toward polls when it abolished them in 2000: Everyone there votes by mail or does not vote at all.
A little less than half of the county’s registered voters voted early during the November ’06 election, according to Moreles.
He said the SCCRV received two-thirds of its absentee ballots the week before election day last year and that the remaining one-third arrived in the two or three weeks before the election.
The chief disadvantage of mail-in ballots is that they are more susceptible to fraud than supervised poll voting, according to studies.
The central argument in favor of absentee voting, though, is that it increases turnout by making it more convenient. Statistics show that states with no-excuse absentee voting have seen a slightly higher turn-out in recent history than states without, but there is no broad consensus on the issue.
Either way, Moreles said state law still requires the county to provide polling sites based on the number of registered voters, regardless of how many participate in the vote-by-mail program.
But since more people are voting by mail, the registrar’s office can process votes earlier (but not tabulate the results until 8pm election night), and poll workers also have “more time and less lines,” Moreles said.
