Casting the Vote in Various Ways

An innovative vote center option has been unable to expand beyond the pilot stage in Indiana. In Hawaii, meanwhile, various methods of casting absentee ballots are in play with an effort to institute all-mail elections. The Honolulu Star-Advertiser has the story:

As of last year, Hawaii was among 29 states allowing some form of no-excuse absentee voting and is now among five states that allow citizens to become permanent absentee voters, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Hawaii’s Legislature approved the system in 2008 over Gov. Linda Lingle’s veto, but a bill to require statewide all-mail election failed in last year’s session.

The governor expressed concerns that the permanent absentee ballot could result in fraud because it lacks a means for verifying that the intended voter was the person who mailed in the vote. That should no longer be an issue since the 2009 federal Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment Act requires states to be equipped with reliable ballot tracking technology.

The Honolulu administration has sent out permanent absentee voting applications to the state’s 250,000 registered voters and other counties also will reach out to their voters. Applicants must provide their Social Security number and sign the form. Election workers are to compare the signature accompanying the mailed-in vote to the one on file from the application.

Oregon initiated all-mail elections in 2000 and appears to have avoided serious fraud by leveraging signature verification and ballot tracking, while increasing turnout by 7 percent in previous years to 67.6 percent in 2008.

Voting by mail follows a trend in that direction in Hawaii.

Thirty-eight percent of votes were cast by absent ballot in the 2008 general election, compared with only 19.7 percent in the 2000 election.

In Oregon, the cost of elections has gone down from $1.81 to $1.05 per voter since the move to all-mail balloting. However, the Los Angeles city clerk warned last year that an all-mail election would entail the prohibitive cost of hiring 480 new employees to process ballots. Hawaii is closing only about one-fourth of polling places, so cost-saving in this year’s election seems doubtful.

This year’s primary and general elections in Hawaii should provide an indication of whether voter turnout is enhanced by permanent absentee ballots and the cost would be affordable if the state were to move to all-mail voting. The Legislature should visit the issue in its next session.

And the Voter Turnout Is …

One of the primary (that’s primary as in most signficant, not the May election) questions each Election Day is: What was the voter turnout?

As we await some of those numbers for today (we do know that approximately 92,000 people voted early or by mail, compared to 61,000 doing the same in 2006), a little history and reflection on the historic jump in participation we saw two years ago when the Obama-Clinton primary fight generated national attention.

In 2006 (a better comparison to this year as the most recent mid-term election), nearly 850,000 Hoosiers cast ballots. That’s 19,000 of registered voters. The top county vote percentages were in Benton (42%) and Martin (41%). In 24 counties, the vote percentages were in the teens.

Two years later, the votes in Indiana doubled to 1.7 million. There were 185,000 absentee ballots that year. Five counties (Greene, Lake, Martin, Henry and Vermillion) had at least half their eligible voters go to the polls and the lowest turnout number was 33% in several counties. (In November 2008, the vote percentage surged to an amazing 62%.)

What about the previous primary elections since the turn of the century? Amazing consistency. 2004, 21% turnout; 2002, 22%; and 2000, 19.5%.

Prediction for this time around: We’ll beat the 20% range of most years, not reach the 40% of 2008 but close more than half of that gap. In other words, lower 30s for a percentage. Too optimistic or a sign that voters are not happy and want to have their say?

2008 Indiana Election Fun Facts

Some stats about the 2008 election in Indiana (courtesy of the Secretary of State):

2008 Registered Voters: 4,513,593

New Voter Registrations since 2006: 525,314

New & Updated Voter Registration Applicants in 2008: 818,194 (New: 345,632; Updated: 472,562)

Absentee Ballots submitted: 668,868

Election Day is Just 17 Days Away!

That’s right, Election Day is just 17 days away from today.  I know, you have just grabbed your calendar and it tells you that it is only September 19 and that it is 46 days until November 4.  Well, you are right, but, so am I. 

We no longer live in an election world where the first Tuesday in November that follows a Monday is Election Day.  Now, Tuesday, November 4 is simply the last day we can call “Election Day.”  So what is 17 days from now? It happens to be October 6, which is the first day that a voter can vote via absentee ballot. This is the first of many Election Days. 

With the ability to vote absentee ballot, at a vote center, satellite voting, at the county clerk’s office or at a traditional polling place on Election Day, voters have a much longer period of time to vote than just 12 hours on one day. This is having a greater impact each election with the outcome of the election. Any campaign that does not recognize Election Day is just 17 days away is taking a giant risk with the their Get Out The Vote (GOTV) efforts.

My suggestion for voters: Take advantage of your options by voting early and avoid what will be long lines in many polling locations on November 4. The Indiana Prosperity Project has details regarding early voting procedures.