So why don't most states support the mail-in system Oregon does?

yes, I know people can vote absentee if they want, but having all voting this way seems like it would eliminate a lot of issues

:eyes:

I love being able to sit down and study the issues with no rush. Very nice and convenient.

I've always voted on election day, I've never failed to vote in over 48
years of elections. It's a trip and I feel a lot more wired in to my
country & since I've always voted Democrat, the shits not my fault.

I had to buy a stamp to mail in my ballot, and I also had to send in a separate document (where I also had to buy a stamp) to verify my signature.

I can afford stamps, but not everyone can. It's a poll tax.

They plan to go to vote-by-mail in Washington. I called my county council to ask what happened if they had an all-mail system and, for example, something happened to a candidate - I used the Wellstone example - what was their solution for replacing the candidate if half the people had voted?

They did not have an answer for me - clearly, they hadn't allowed for that contingency.

study it and talk to people in the know about different issues...and I have never paid for a stamp...I live in a small town and drop it off at city hall...but I do think that they should have stamped envelopes... the money they save by not having polls open and people working the polls...

If they change it, I'll miss it.

Also, I tend to procrastinate and lose things. I can just see myself losing my ballot. If they do this, all elections will be weighed heavily in favor of organized people!

Paid for by taxpayers. This way, a person isn't automatically disenfranchised simply for being poor.

I haven't seen any downsides to it, but am interested to see what kind of responses you'll get.

The problems are minuscule compared to ALL other methods imo.

Its great
I feel my pain

:woohoo:

:hi:

Increases voter participation.
Eliminates bad weather turnout problems on voting day.
Creates a longer "voting window" which requires earlier and longer campaigning in a primary but evens out the effect of last minute fake scandals

I was a vote-by-mail voter for many years in Oregon. Now I am registered as "permanent absentee" in California which is about the same. This type of voting is growing rapidly in California especially in rural areas where voters may have a long drive in bad weather to a polling place.

manipulate the votes....these machines are owned, programed, maintained & do the counting by the same corporations,(Diebold, ES&S) these same corporations who have publicly professed republican ownership...and why, when there any discrepancies in the voting, (OH, FL,AK, NM, etc. etc.) the manipulation always go in the republicans favor....of course the republicans are constantly fighting to keep corporate owned electronic voting machines....But, should corporations own our voting machines in the first place? It's our tax dollars paying for them.

Let's finally move forward, and get back to 100% counting of paper ballots and audits as other progressive nations like England. France, Italy, and on and on, who tried electronic counting of votes and went back to the only true accurate way of counting, each paper ballot manually....

No one in that big a hurry to know an election result when accuracy, fairness and non manipulation of our votes is far more important!

Republicans will fight it to the end, calling it old way of doing things or not up to date with technology, etc.... of course republicans know very well all the machine are easily hackable and the republicans do hack them!

His presentation was entirely about Oregon's vote-by-mail
system and when he was done and all the questions had
been asked (by all the most rabid ACLUers who are pretty
skeptical about voting systems), I was sold.

Don't have a stamp? You can still vote in person at (say)
your town clerk's office.

Tesha

http://votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1211&Itemid=113

Beware if a Republican ever becomes Oregon's Secretary of State things will change immediately!!

Read BradBlog.com and get some great facts. electronic scanners can just as easily be hacked...Don't close your mind to facts!

Keep a Dem as SoS in every state!

After the big plenary session, he did a "break-out" (much
smaller, more intimate) session and I went to that one too
and spoke to him at length.

Tesha

IMO it is just plain dumb to keep going the way we are and Oregon seems to be pleasing everyone..

Our entire state political machine would break down if greenbacks weren't passed around during elections.

The Daley political machine just wouldn't put up with mail only elections. Or at least not until they figured out a way to game the system.