Citizens will make call on mail votes

Spokane voters will go to the polls this November to decide how they will cast future ballots.

County commissioners unanimously decided Tuesday to hold an advisory vote on whether Spokane County should switch to an all-mail election system.

“There is nothing more critical that government does than let people participate through their vote,” said Commissioner Todd Mielke.

In the meantime, commissioners said the county could lease handicapped-accessible equipment mandated by Jan. 1, 2006, for all polling places under the federal Help America Vote Act for one year. If voters wanted to continue going to the polls, that equipment could then be purchased. If not, it could be sent back.

That’s not the up or down decision that Spokane County Auditor Vicky Dalton said she’d hoped for.

Dalton said she’s uncertain whether the vendor will even lease the equipment, and then there’s the issue of federal grant money.

Spokane County is entitled to $607,000 to purchase federally approved equipment. But Dalton said it’s unclear whether that money could be used to lease the equipment or if it would be available in a year, when commissioners plan to make a final decision on whether to stay with poll voting sites or make everyone vote by mail.

She said she would have to ask the Washington Secretary of State’s office for answers to those questions.

Dalton estimates that the cost of purchasing the necessary handicapped-accessible voting equipment would be $750,000, plus another $100,000 per year of additional upkeep and maintenance. Lease prices are unknown.

Voting by mail, on the other hand, would save the county $24,000 per election, she said.

Commissioner Phil Harris said he believed Dalton wasn’t an unbiased source of information on the subject, saying, “She’s the one who’s pushing for it.”

It isn’t about money, said commissioners, who cited security concerns with vote-by-mail elections and the desire to let county residents vote the way they prefer as reasons to take a year to consider the situation.

“We shouldn’t be considering the cost right here. We should be considering Americana and the rights of the people,” said Harris.

Mielke, who initially proposed the one-year lease arrangement, said he accepts the potential extra costs of delaying a final decision.

“For the year of the lease, we might have to go it alone,” he said.

The commissioners’ decision will likely prevent the elections department from starting a mobile outreach program for disabled and elderly voters needing assistance, said Dalton.

That program, which would have taken elections workers and equipment to nursing homes and group homes in the 20 days before an election, was dependent on vote-by-mail cost savings, she explained.

But Commissioner Mark Richard said he wasn’t convinced that those savings were going to be enough to fund the outreach effort.

Richard also expressed concerns about security issues, such as people stealing or altering ballots in the mail and voters being coerced by others during the voting process.