All mail voting? Consider the blue bags.
Published Mon, Nov 20 2006 12:22 AM
Technorati Tags: News and Politics, Elections
King county is still targeting 2007 or 2008 for the switchover to all mail voting. They claim that this will make elections more secure and trustworthy. I'm worried that it will open up more potential for fraud. From the Seattle PI comes an article about the work still to be done. Here's a highlight regarding vote-by-mail.
Consider the blue bags.
Each polling place is issued a canvas duffel for loading up with absentee ballots dropped off at the polls, before the ballots are transported to a counting center. Procedures call for zipping the bag shut, locking it with a numbered seal and then filling out and signing a packing slip.
But at many polls Nov. 7, the ballots wouldn't all fit in the bag. So workers improvised: They taped bulging, unzipped bags to hold them together, or they stuffed excess ballots into plastic bags. Some packing slips weren't signed. One bag was left in a worker's car overnight.
Of course if King County had moved to all vote-by-mail nobody would have had the opportunity to drop their absentee ballots off at a polling place where they could be mishandled. Then we would have had to worry about our ballots getting lost in the mail, lost in the back rooms at the elections office, or even returned due to insufficient postage. Mail ballots do sometimes disappear after all. The article continues...
Interim Elections Director Jim Buck sees the bag business not as a sign of chronic ineptitude but rather of positive change. It was the department staff that brought the issue before the board, and the problem would have been addressed in any event, he said. That reflects a healthier workplace culture, he said, and a commitment to improve.
"The people here look at it as if it is their responsibility and their duty, and they are taking proactive steps to do things better," he said. "I think that's kind of the change of attitude that has evolved since 2004."
It's good that the culture in the elections office has improved. I still think it's a bad thing to move to all vote-by-mail. But the county council won't even leave that decision up to a vote. I wonder why?
Cross posted at NWBloggers.com.
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