Uncharted Territory For Colorado With Mail Ballots

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Note: The Bighorn Center, funded by $1.3 million from Rutt Bridges, succeeded in putting a measure on the November, 2002, ballot making all Colorado elections mail in only, closing all neighborhood precincts. Thankfully, the measure was soundly defeated by Colorado voters.

October 23, 2002 — It's somewhat strange to hear proponents of Amendment 28, which mandates mail balloting for all elections, cite Oregon as proof that it's a risk-free plan. The fact is that Oregon is at the moment going through only its second general election with mail ballots - the first was in 2000 — and Oregon is the only state in the nation that has adopted such a full-blown mail system.

In other words, there is no decent track record for mail ballots in high-stakes general elections. We simply don't know whether it will work over time without major problems — especially those involving fraud.

We're hardly the only ones thinking this way. A commentary in Sunday's Portland Oregonian also emphasizes these worries, and warns Oregon residents what they may be in for down the road. Melody Rose, professor of political science at Portland State University, begins, however, by pointing out that alleged gains in voter turnout from mail balloting are in fact controversial. She writes:

"Scholars are divided on whether mail-in voting increases turnout, but the most recent research suggests mail-in voting boosts turnout only among those demographic groups likely to vote anyway. Its success hangs largely on how well a state trains its citizens to use the system."

Rose's greater concern, naturally, is the potential for fraud.

"Although Oregon has not had to battle fraud, I'm convinced that will happen sooner or later. Human nature hasn't changed fundamentally since the 19th century when we didn't have the secrecy of the voting booth to prevent widespread voter corruption. Here are some likely scenarios:

Ballots will be stolen from mailboxes...Third-party ballot collectors, who register with the state and agree to deliver your ballot to an official site, will throw away whole groups of ballots based on voters' sex, perceived political leanings or race.

Ballots mailed to senior citizens' homes will be systematically stolen, destroyed or sold. Spouses will begin throwing away or fraudulently signing each others' ballots. 'Get out the vote' efforts will take on new meaning in Oregon."

In Colorado, too, if Amendment 28 passes, as the polls now suggest it will. [Ed. Note: It didn't.] And we can think of several other scenarios for potential fraud — involving, for example, college dormitories, large apartment complexes, and homes from which voters have moved. Suffice it to say that the opportunities are unexplored and plentiful.

Like Colorado today, Oregon already had an incredibly lenient absentee ballot program before full-blown mail ballots were adopted. Anyone could vote by mail just by requesting a ballot.

Indeed, Colorado's absentee system is so relaxed (with no signature checking, for example) and extends the election cycle so far back that it cries out for reform. Instead, backers of Amendment 28 beckon us to follow Oregon into uncharted territory. And while we're all in favor of new adventures, we don't believe they should involve elections.

Working in concert with Citizens for Accurate Mail Ballot Election Results (CAMBER) in Boulder, Colorado, the Equal Justice Foundation played a significant role in defeating Amendment 28 that would have required all elections in Colorado to be by mail only.

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| Chapter 5 — Lies, Damn Lies, and Mail In Elections |

| Next — County clerks breaking election law on signatures by Steven Paulson |

| Back — Oregon's Comedy Of Errors by Thomas Hargrove |

Last modified 6/14/09