Quote:
Originally Posted by abaya
I don't quite understand why everyone just doesn't request absentee ballots, instead of taking the time to go and mess around at a voting booth? Is it really only in the Pacific NW that most elections are done via absentee balloting? You get the ballot mailed directly to your house, along with a voter's pamphlet explaining all the choices, and then you mail it back in when you're done. Easy as pie.
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Yes, so far only Oregon and Washington have mail-in elections. It's a lot easier. I've never voted at a polling place as a result, but I used to go with my mother when I was younger, and remember it being fun, but also crazy and crowded (and we lived in a fairly rural area at the time).
It's one of those things that if people tried it, they might find they like it, but they're not willing to try it, oddly enough. Oregon got into it by allowing local elections to start using vote-by-mail, and it became popular enough statewide that they passed an initiative to make it permanent and include the general elections in 1998 (2 years before I turned 18). It's a great system, because 1) you vote with a Scantron (creating a paper record), and 2) that Scantron is then scanned to be counted (creating an electronic record). There was an op-ed in the NYTimes in 2006 called "The Election Is in the Mail" by Ruth Goldway that outlines many of the benefits of vote-by-mail. I'd share it, but there's no permalink.
Most people who move here from out of state find it a little strange at first but then realize how nice it is to be able to vote at one's leisure.
So yes, I've already voted--got my ballot in Saturday's post, filled it out Saturday night, and dropped it off at the ballot drop site on my way to soccer on Sunday. I could've slapped a stamp on it and mailed it back, but there are TONS of ballot drop sites, and so it's easy to just pop it in a box while I'm out and about.