Decision on vote-by-mail put off by commissioners

The vote on voting will have to wait.

Spokane County commissioners decided Tuesday to take one week to gather more information before deciding whether the county will close down traditional polling locations next year and move to a vote-by-mail elections system.

But Commissioner Phil Harris made it abundantly clear that one week won’t change his mind. He said he opposes moving to vote-by-mail elections without an advisory vote of the people.

Commissioners Todd Mielke and Mark Richard didn’t tip their hands, although neither was as critical of the proposed new system as Harris.

Opponents of the plan told commissioners that it could make local elections vulnerable to fraud.

People could be coerced into voting for particular candidates and positions by bosses, union officials and even spouses, testified citizen Jim Robinson. “The ballot can be purchased,” he said.

“Fraud could happen before the ballots are even sent out through multiple registrations,” Robinson added, asking what would happen to ballots delivered to the wrong address or intercepted in the mail.

He urged the commission to return to a system in which only those unable to make it to the polls are allowed to vote absentee.

Spokane County Auditor Vicky Dalton defended the security of voting by mail.

“Every single signature is checked” and it’s possible to track ballots through the postal system as they make their way to and from voters, she said. “Signatures aren’t checked at the poll sites.”

Dalton added that the proposal would improve voters’ ability to make informed choices and save the county money.

Changes mandated by the federal Help America Vote Act by Jan. 1, 2006, would cost $750,000 in new equipment and another $100,000 a year for increased maintenance and staffing, she explained.

Federal funding for those alterations would pay $607,000, leaving the rest of the capital cost and all operational costs to the county.

Voters with disabilities would have more assistance available to them under the vote-by-mail system than they do now, Dalton said.

The mail voting system would allow citizens to visit one of three to four voting centers if they lose their ballots, prefer to drop them off on Election Day rather than mail them, or have other problems, Dalton said. And county elections employees would dispatch mobile outreach units to area group homes, nursing homes and other locations to assist people with the voting process in the 20 days before each election.

Nan Kelly, speaking on behalf of the Coalition of Responsible Disabled, said that those with disabilities would benefit more from adding more accessible equipment at the polls and providing the outreach.

The county can’t afford that unless it adopts by-mail voting, Dalton said.

Commissioner Richard wasn’t satisfied with the cost estimates for that outreach, however, asking Dalton for firmer figures.

That will be difficult because it’s unknown how many groups will ask for the mobile voting units, she answered.

Harris said he wasn’t convinced that voting by mail would provide any cost benefit.

“I hear salespeople trying to sell us something that I am not sure is going to save us a dime,” he said.

Besides cost, Dalton pointed out that most Spokane County voters have already decided that they prefer mailing their ballots. More electors are registered to vote by absentee than at the polls.

And three of four votes are cast by mail, Dalton said.

Harris said those numbers are misleading because changes to polling stations have made them less accessible to many people who now vote by mail instead. Some county precincts are only able to vote absentee, he said.

The vote-by-mail system makes sense, said Hugh Davis, who represented the Democratic Party on the advisory group that drafted the recommendation. Davis said it would cost less and be more convenient.

“It’s time has come,” Davis said, even as he confessed a personal preference for voting at the polls.