Oregon Considers Vote-By-Mail Bill State Would Be First To Hold Elections By Mail If Governor Approves Proposal

Oregon would become the first state to conduct all its elections by mail under a measure awaiting the governor’s signature.

“It’s historic. Oregon writes a new chapter for the country,” Secretary of State Phil Keisling said Tuesday. “This is something the county clerks have been working for years, and something which I strongly supported and worked on. We’re very happy with it.”

Gov. John Kitzhaber “is very interested in the idea but he would like a chance to review the legislation before he decides to sign it or not,” said spokeswoman Leslie Carlson.

The proposal is an effort to improve government efficiency, save the state money and increase election participation. But opponents fear fraud if voters are bullied and cannot retreat to the privacy of the ballot booth.

The bill also gives voters the option of dropping off their ballots on Election Day, but leaves it up to each county to decide the number of drop-off locations.

The activity at polling places - lastminute campaigning, assessing the turnout, media interviews with voters - would become only memories.

The vote-by-mail elections would include the state and presidential primaries and general elections. All other elections in Oregon already are conducted via mail.

Keisling says all-mail voting should save Oregon about $2.5 million next year, because the state won’t have to pay temporary workers to staff the more than 3,000 polling locations.

The state began mail balloting on an experimental scale in 1981. Opponents say that suddenly switching all elections to mail could lead to complications that don’t turn up in small, local elections.

“This is an invitation to voter fraud, to bribery, to intimidation of voters. This is a crummy bill,” said Bill Lunch, a political scientist at Oregon State University. “You move away from a controlled voting place, to having ballots floating around in people’s dining rooms and in their cars.”

He predicted that a mail system would eventually grow so complex as to become a hurdle to voting, although “when you first bring in vote by mail, votes go up because of the novelty factor.”

In May, a mail election on a statewide ballot measure to dedicate some Lottery proceeds to education had a turnout of 42 percent. That compares with a May 1994 primary election turnout of 38 percent.

Keisling said the proposal would discourage candidates from waging last-minute smear campaigns, because voters would have a two-week window to send in their ballot.

“Vote-by-mail puts the timing and nature of campaigns into the hands of voters,” he said. “This puts a lot more uncertainty into the equation. You’re not exactly sure when voters are going to put it in the mail.”

Kitzhaber has a month from adjournment to sign or veto the bill.