January 11, 2006

"Enthusiasm swells for all-mail vote"

"Even as Alameda County decided Tuesday to lobby for an all vote-by-mail primary in June, local elections officials in a dozen other California counties were talking about the same thing.

Voting-reform advocates in Alameda County largely favored the move, and county supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to seek emergency legislation as a way out of a chaotic market in voting machinery.

By late afternoon, local elections officials in at least 12 counties, all in Northern California and including San Mateo, Marin, Solano and Sonoma, had signaled an interest in perhaps joining Alameda County's legislation for much the same reason.

But the swell of enthusiasm for abandoning polling places and conducting an election by mail could get a chillier reception in Sacramento, where Democrats and Republicans alike have blocked all previous attempts at voting entirely by mail.

Lawmakers contacted Tuesday declined to weigh in on Alameda County's effort, saying they hadn't seen the bill yet. But politicians have been wary of changing the dynamics of the campaigns that got them elected, and as recently as last year, they rejected six counties' effort to try an all-mail election.

"It hasn't happened yet; I can't imagine it'll happen now at the last minute," said one Democratic staffer.

Still, Alameda County's effort comes at a time of surging popularity for voting by mail, with 40 percent of voters in the last statewide election casting absentee ballots. Mail-in balloting is even more popular in the Bay Area at 45 percent of the turnout in the November special election, with Alameda County at 47 percent and counties such as San Mateo and Solano at or above 50 percent."

You can read the article here.

Posted by Randy Riddle at January 11, 2006 12:21 PM