Mail Balloting Invites Fraud, Intimidation by Jon Caldara

Reproduced under the Fair Use exception of 17 USC § 107 for noncommercial, nonprofit, and educational use.

November 3, 2002 — Election Day is turning into election month. With early voting and mail-in absentee ballots, our elections have become moving targets.

The election season has many ups and downs, and voters learn about the candidates and issues along the way. Different issues become engaged in the public discourse at different times. For example, the press doesn't cover tax issues until just before election. Taxes simply can't compete with the sexy and high-financed mudslinging campaigns of, oh I don't know, U.S. Senate races. Voting early is like judging the winner of a 15-round boxing match in the 16^th round. Look at Minnesota.

U.S. Senator Paul Wellstone of Minnesota died in a plane crash less than two weeks before the election. Many people there had already voted for him with mail-in absentee ballots. What happens to those votes? The answer is "it depends" — on who has more lawyers. The Minneapolis Star-Tribune reports that some counties are attempting to send replacement ballots, but only to those who know to request one. However, most of that state's 87 counties aren't sending anything. Voters must go to a polling place if they want to re-vote. Democratic lawyers are claiming the homebound voters and those out of town have been disenfranchised. Republican lawyers counter there is no such thing as a re-vote. It's a mess.

Voting in Colorado is easy. You can go to the clerk's office for early voting. Or, if you wish to vote by mail, you simply request an absentee ballot. In fact, either major party will bend over backwards to get you one. If you want to wait until the end of the 15t^h round to decide the winners, you can vote at your precinct voting place on Election Day. Cool thing — you have the choice.

That choice will be taken away from you if Amendment 28 passes on Tuesday[, November 5, 2002]. The measure would require mail-in ballots to be sent to all registered voters — whether they want it mailed to them or not. It ends precinct voting. Of course, you can drive your ballot down on Election Day and it does require at least one polling place per county to be open on Election Day, for those who love lines.

Last year's mail-in debacle in Boulder [in November 2001] gives us a glimmer of what to expect statewide if 28 passes (and with the financial backing of the multi-millionaire who came up with the idea, it will pass). KCNC News 4 reported that in Boulder, thousands of ballots were mailed to incorrect addresses, residents who moved away, and even the dead. No opportunity for election mischief there. Also, the clerks rejected 1,000 ballots after they were filled out and sent back by voters. The best part of the Channel 4 report was seeing the reaction of one legal voter when he was told his vote wasn't counted. Another happy customer of forced mail-in elections.

Remember back in grade school, learning about the secret ballot and the private voting booth and why that was the key to democracy? Voting was meant be an individual act, not a communal one. No family member, employer, union boss or church pastor would look over your shoulder. Well, forced mail-in ballots rip the curtains off those sacred voting booths. News 4 reported that many ballots in Boulder's failed experiment were un-sealed or opened improperly, allowing workers to examine scored ballots, knowing how an individual voted.

Melissa Rimel, the president and founder of Women Against Domestic Violence, and a survivor of domestic abuse herself, warns voters against Amendment 28. When recalling her many years of abuse she recounts how she was not even allowed to get the mail without her husband first going through it. She says that even if she would have been allowed to fill out a ballot it would have be done under the control of her abusive husband. The ads for 28 show voters voting at the kitchen table. Funny how they never show family members checking each other's work. Ms Rimel makes clear that victims of domestic abuse want to have their opinions heard and counted. Forced mail-in elections again take away their voice.

Proponents claim that increased voter turnout will compensate for any increases in fraud or intimidation. Small comfort, given Oregon's mixed results with forced mail-in elections. Melody Rose, political science professor at Portland State University, reports, "Voter turnout in Oregon looks much more like that of states with old-fashioned voting booths."

In a reckless pursuit to increase voter participation, we shouldn't open the doors to fraud, abuse and intimidation by taking away a voter's choice.

Jon Caldara is president of the Independence Institute in Golden. He lives in Boulder.

Mail ballot — Here's proof that method not secure

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Letters to the Editor, Boulder Daily Camera

Reproduced under the Fair Use exception of 17 USC § 107 for noncommercial, nonprofit, and educational use.

The following letter appeared in the same issue as the above article.

November 3, 2002 — When you drop your ballot cards into the ballot box at a polling place, they become completely anonymous — it is impossible to trace them to anyone.

With mail-in ballots, your ballot, with your name and signature on it, is kept in storage for more than two years and is public record, according to the Boulder County Elections Division Manager. It is supposed to be sealed, but...

While at the Boulder County Clerk's office, Channel 4 News investigators were given unsealed ballots to look at from Boulder County's 2001 mail-ballot election. They saw exactly how named individuals (including me) voted. If you saw the TV piece, you saw them opening actual ballots, including a close-up of the filled in circle of one question.

Linda Flack, the Boulder County Elections Division Manager, called it an extreme breach of security, apologized to me, and promised it would never happen again. I honestly believe that she has the absolute best of intentions, but...

If it can happen accidentally, what about purposely, by someone in government? Suppose corrupt, overzealous officials decide they want to see how certain people voted? What assurance is there that they would never be able to do that? Can anyone promise that can never happen?

My right to cast a private vote was completely and utterly taken from me. My vote was thrown away due to a mismatch error at the county clerk's office. I spent days analyzing and discussing the issues and candidates, and then cast very intentional and informed votes. Learning that my ballot was simply thrown away is infuriating. But even worse, my ballot was made public. That is frightening.

Do you want to have to worry about who might be able to determine how you voted on a controversial issue?

Think about it, then vote No on Amendment 28. Save our liberty.

I now know what it's like to have my vote thrown out and made public. Believe me — it's not something you want to have happen to you.

Chuck Anderson, Boulder

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 — Report on the April 1, 2003, mail in election, Colorado Springs, Colorado by Charles E. Corry, Ph.D. |

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Last modified 6/14/09