Voting power appears to be in the mail

In the recent primary, four longtime voters who rarely miss an election gathered at a north Spokane polling site.

But not to vote. They spent the day, as they do most election days, as poll workers, monitoring other people voting.

“We all four vote absentee,” said Wayne McMorris.

So do the majority of registered voters in Spokane County. So did the vast majority of voters who actually cast votes in this month’s primary and almost every election for the last several years.

In the Sept. 20 primary, only about one ballot in eight was cast at the polls.

The shift to permanent absentee registration – about three Spokane voters get their ballots by mail for every two that get them at the poll site on election day – raises an interesting question about one of the issues on the upcoming general election.

Spokane County commissioners will ask the voters’ advice on having the entire county vote by mail, something that county Auditor Vicky Dalton, the chief elections officer, says will save money.

If voters mark that issue the way they cast their ballots, commissioners may find little support for keeping poll sites open. It may be just a matter of numbers.

Everyone admits that turnout was dismal in an election that didn’t even involve a third of the city of Spokane and significant parts of the rest of the county because they had no races on the ballot. Those precincts that had an election usually had one – and at most, two – ballot items. Only one voter in four who could vote, did.

But that overall turnout masks an even bigger shift in how people are voting.

Among Spokane residents registered to vote by mail, more than a third – 38 percent – cast a ballot sometime in the three weeks leading up to Sept. 20.

Among those registered to vote at the polls, fewer than one in 12 – 7.6 percent – did so.

That’s consistent with most elections that aren’t presidential elections, said Dalton, who has urged commissioners to make the shift to all-mail voting under a new state law. Most of the dedicated voters – those who cast ballots in at least three of the last four elections – are now voting by mail. Occasional voters – those who are mainly motivated by the quadrennial presidential election or a hot ballot issue – are more likely to be registered at the polls.

The county also forced some smaller precincts with fewer than 100 voters to go to all-mail voting. Poll sites with only one precinct were combined to cut down on the number of locations and poll workers.

Dalton recommended earlier this year the county make the change to all-mail voting, in part to avoid the estimated $500,000 expense of new machines for disabled voters required next year under federal law. Each of the county’s 85 poll sites would need at least one of those machines under the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Help America Vote Act.

She believes the county would save money over the long run by purchasing a few of those machines to serve as mobile voting units for handicapped voters, and mailing ballots to all voters. Those who want the community experience of casting a ballot on election day could come to one of a half dozen stations sprinkled around the county, she said.

Commissioners, however, balked at making the change immediately, and put an advisory measure on the Nov. 8 ballot.

Commissioner Mark Richard said Thursday he worries about the security of mail-in ballots, and isn’t sure whether the savings will materialize. But after reviewing voting statistics from the primary, Richard acknowledged the numbers may work against keeping poll sites open if the board is going to be guided by the advisory ballot.

If the vast majority of people who vote by mail are happy with that system, it’s logical to assume nearly all will tell the county to switch, Richard said. And if this is a typical off-year general election, people who would say keep the polls open might not show up.

“In a perfect world, we probably would’ve waited for an even-year election,” he said. But the federal requirements for new machines take effect in January.

If the vote is overwhelming, one way or the other, the commissioners probably have little choice but to follow that direction, Richard said. If it’s close, however, he wants to take a look at the number of absentee voters who want the county to keep the poll sites open as an indication they are unhappy with being forced to vote by mail when their poll sites were closed.

“How many of them would want their poll site back?” he asked.

The commissioners will also do more study of the costs and security concerns that some groups have raised about mail ballots, if the vote is close.

Jonathan Bechtle of the Evergreen Freedom Foundation, an Olympia-based research group, says mail balloting continues to face criticism around the country by groups that study ways to improve elections.

“The ballots are not under control” from the time they leave the elections office to the time they come back, Bechtle said. That provides possibilities for theft from mailboxes before voters pick up their ballots, and for coercion by friends, family and co-workers while the voter is marking a ballot.

Dalton believes mail voting is secure, and doesn’t believe that coercion is a significant factor. What some people describe as coercion is really family participation, she adds.

“Families sitting down at the table and discussing issues is a good thing,” she said.