WHAT A nuisance it is to vote in this country. Even already registered voters have to jump through many hoops in order to cast their ballot. Most voters will have to drive to a designated polling place, sign in and then wait in line - all to cast their single, tiny vote. This represents lost time that could have been spent working, studying or watching television. For college students it can be even harder. In Virginia, we have to obtain and fill out a form even to request an absentee ballot. This requires time and takes unnecessary legwork. It could all be avoided; the process could be so much easier. More importantly, by simplifying the process, we could drastically improve our anemic voter turnout rates. The solution: Vote by Mail.
The Vote by Mail is a new method of running elections that is currently implemented in Oregon. Instead of requiring voters to go to the polls on Election Day, all registered voters are mailed a ballot a few weeks before the election. The voter then completes the ballot and returns it by 8 p.m. on Election Day. Ballots can either be mailed back, or hand delivered to pre-designated drop sites. With either method, confirmation of receipt is available for worried voters. Even voters who long for a semblance of tradition are accommodated. They have set up privacy booths in state election offices for voters to sit down and fill out their ballots.
In many ways, the Vote by Mail program seems similar to current absentee ballot procedures. After voters complete their ballots they place them in secrecy envelopes and seal them. Then they sign across the seal. Then the ballots are placed in return envelopes and sent back. This is exactly how Virginia absentee balloting works. The only innovation is that all voters use this method and that none are required to make a special request for an absentee ballot.
Some might worry about an increased potential for voter fraud. Others could express concern about a decreased assurance of anonymity. Both of these issues are inconsequential. Clearly, election officials must have faith in a system authorizing voting by mail, or we would not be currently allowed to vote with an absentee ballot. There is no clear evidence suggesting that either anonymous voting or the integrity of elections might be threatened if everyone voted by mail.
In the United States we take pride in our constitutional democracy and sense of civic responsibility. These are ideals that our nation was founded upon. Yet, a very high proportion of Americans simply don't vote. It has been 40 years since more than 60 percent of the U.S. voting age population bothered to vote. In non-presidential elections, we often struggle to approach a mere 50 percent majority. In Virginia, we had less than a 50 percent turnout even in the last presidential election.
For a long time people have been criticizing voters for being apathetic and lazy. Rarely is the voting system itself closely scrutinized. The state of Oregon has shown initiative here and has tried experimentation. Their noble goal is greater participatory democracy. We should praise them for their boldness, and seek inspiration from their ideas.
The results indicate that the Vote by Mail program is working. The system was first tested in some special elections. In one of these, voter participation reached 66 percent for a January special election. The system was first used in a presidential primary this year, and a majority of Oregonians participated. This year's general election is the first one for which Vote by Mail is being used. As of a week before the election, over 260,000 ballots - 13 percent of those mailed out -had been returned. Based on these numbers, state elections officials predict a strong voter turnout. Oregon's Secretary of State, Bill Bradbury (D), conjectures turnout could even reach an incredible 80 percent.
Come Nov. 8, many people will be paying attention to who the new president will be and which party will control Congress. In addition to these results, you should also watch for voter turnout and the effectiveness of Oregon's Vote by Mail program. If you are one of the many who simply didn't bother to exercise your right to vote this year, ask yourself why. Would it have made a difference if voting were made easier? What if your state had a Vote by Mail program?
Many people won't vote this year, and simply blaming them is not an effective solution to the problem of low turnout rates. There is room for improvement in the voting system. One might expect that in the future we will all vote over the Internet. Until then, the Vote by Mail program provides a better alternative than the current system.
(Benjamin Grosz is a Cavalier Daily viewpoint writer.)
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