Originally published at: Voting by mail is easy and convenient - Boing Boing
…
16 Likes
My state of Washington has been exclusively vote by mail for about as long as I’ve been living here, and it’s great.
I can fill out the ballot at my own convenience in my own home with little effort or pressure. Then I can either drop it in the mailbox, or drive it over to city hall and use a drive-up ballot drop box that doesn’t even require me to get out of my car. (I usually do this just to make sure it gets into the right hands on time.)
No need to take time off of work because the framers decided holding elections on a Tuesday was a great idea. No need to wait in line for hours. No need to feel pressure to get my ballot filled out quickly because I’m taking up a voting booth.
It’s super easy and low friction. Every state should be like this, but we all know why they aren’t.
ETA Washington also automatically registers you to vote when you apply for an enhanced driver’s license/ID as well as other state-run activities that have citizenship requirements.
26 Likes
I’ve been voting by mail for years and also love it. I know some people prefer showing up on election day and voting in person, but this is much better for me.
While it’s understandable why Republicans tend to be opposed to anything that makes voting easier, I’ve always been puzzled by liberals and Democrats who are opposed to vote-by-mail on the basis that there’s some particular civic virtue attached to voting in-person. I hear from them less and less, but they always tended to be older and privileged enough to take time off from work to vote (on what should be a federal bank holiday and celebration of democracy for all, whatever method one uses to vote).
ETA:
I usually do this as well.
17 Likes
I’ve been voting my mail since I moved to New Jersey. Well…I get the ballot in the mail. I could mail it in, but I usually just drop it in a drop box, which are numerous and conveniently located. I dropped my ballot off 2 days ago.
This should be the default. We should be making voting as easy as possible. Voting is a right in this country, not a privilege. Or it’s supposed to be. We should be making it easier, not harder. I’m moving back to Missouri next month. Absentee voting there is only allowed if you, for one of several listed reasons, cannot vote in person on election day. Ugh.
19 Likes
In Washington, each county has at least one in-person voting center people can use who really want to vote in person. Voting centers are open 18 days before election day, so you don’t even have to go on election day if you don’t want to.
Seems like a reasonable compromise.
I have no idea how much use these get across the state since VBM is the default and so damn convenient, but 
. There’s a lot of deep red areas of the state and maybe they like it there.
I’m the same way. I trust when I use a drop box that it’ll go to the right place. (And for me at least it’s not inconvenient to go to a drop box. I get it more in rural areas.) I have less faith in the USPS to get it there in a timely manner (especially with who’s running it right now).
14 Likes
“B-b-but… if we vote by mail then aren’t we ultimately entrusting the integrity of our elections to [checks notes] sworn public servants who work for the Federal government?”
17 Likes
6 Likes
I assume he meant “the carrier no longer charges for texting.”
Ducking autocorrect.
6 Likes
In Oregon, at least, all voting is vote-by-mail and while you can return a ballot by postal mail you can also put it in dropboxes maintained by county election departments, which is what I do since there are several located conveniently near me.
12 Likes
I have a similar story. I moved just as the pandemic was starting, and have been requesting mail-in ballots ever since. It’s easier for me to use the ballot drop boxes, and they are registered as received later the same day.
I’ve lost faith in the USPS to get anything processed consistently, because they once failed to deliver a primary ballot to me in time to use it. That was after getting confirmation it was mailed two weeks before election day. This time my ballot was mailed on October 2nd, and received on the 5th. Most drop boxes in my area open on October 14th. 
12 Likes
Here in PA, there have been way too many GOP shenanigans over mail-in ballots for me to trust my vote to anything other than in-person voting on election day.
15 Likes
We started voting by mail during covid, there is no way I’m standing in line in my stupid red county wearing a mask.
They’re also recruiting local poll watchers to watch out for I have no idea what.
Our local groups are concerned that their ballots will be stolen from the drop boxes and thrown in the trash.
They never really explain how the ballot thieves are able to only steal republican ballots from sealed envelopes.
They also believe it’s possible for someone to open their sealed envelope and change their vote.
In other words they don’t trust the republican clerk they voted for.
Mail in ballots, saving my sanity.
15 Likes
Here in Oregon it’s all vote by mail. We also have automatic voter registration through the DMV. If you have a state issued ID, you receive a ballot without even having to ask. You can fill it out and mail it in or throw it in the trash it’s your choice. Because it’s run through the DMV’s Real ID program it’s extremely robust. My dad made a small change to his signature in 2022 and within days of mailing his ballot, they called him in to the DMV to prove he is who he says he is. People have tried to defraud the system but it’s proven to be extremely difficult.
14 Likes
hear-hear! (seattlite here). …often have thought that any electoral zone which wanted to learn how to do things as securely and conveniently as possible could do far worse that to come and copy what has been established in Washington state, (likely there are plenty of other places which do similarly). Paper mark-sense (or “scan-matic”) ballots mailed in. Way too much effort to hack, even with unlikely ballot stuffing, and the optical counters (far more accurate than any hand count) are “air-gapped” (and relatively ‘stupid’ with no re-programming possible) from the internet. It’s easy to vote! It can be done methodically over coffee with lots of home time to study. Then just mail it in or use a drop-box without even getting out of the @#$ car. It’s simply the best and non-hackable way.
11 Likes
There’s a specific kind of social surfing I do when I stand in line to vote in person at my polling place, either on election day or during the early voting period. Social anthropology. Data sampling. Finding out what locals are thinking about (if they talk in line).
I learned quite a bit about my neighbors and community members. In central Texas, I think it was about a 50/50 split on whether I regretted being in the queue. Back in Texas, I have a few friends who have volunteered to be actual poll workers bless their hearts. Brave wimmin. I continue to be amazed.
Now that I’m in the mid-Atlantic, my guess is that it’s a whole new world. I have a lot to learn about my new surroundings. No time like the present to learn about who lives in this area with me. We have “motor-voter” registration here, and I am hoping we get a solid, sane, rational, drama-free turnout.
14 Likes
I get my ballot in the mail (in Maryland) and can either mail it back or use one of the many drop boxes. I like this process so much more than either early voting or election day voting that I have changed my status to “always mail.”
Getting my ballot in the mail prompts me to specifically research the down-ballot contests. I know I could do this already, but there’s something about having the ballot and pen in my hand that concentrates my attention. I don’t ever want to go back to a voting booth.
13 Likes
15 Likes
I first voted by mail here in Minnesota during the early part of the pandemic, when they temporarily suspended the requirement to have someone (either another registered voter or a notary) witness you mark your vote and complete your ballot.
After that I did it again a couple of times, but since I live alone I had to rope in a co-worker once, and make a point of meeting up with my very-busy sibling another time, to act as witnesses. I could bug one of my neighbors, but for me it’s easier to just walk the few blocks to my neighborhood polling place on election day, and I don’t have to bother with requesting a mail-in ballot, or worry about sending it back through the mail or getting to a central location where I could drop it off, or be concerned with any deadlines beyond remembering what day is election day.
In general, though, I support mail-in voting and would like to do it if it was a little more streamlined.
I’m curious, do all states require a witness for mail-in ballots? I assume so, but I don’t know.
10 Likes
I just looked it up, holy crap, witness? That’s some nonsense.
Here in Michigan we just fill it out, date it, sign it, and return it.
15 Likes
Came here to say all of this, s’fine, us oldpharts gotta save our breath. Nothing’s perfect, but it works at least as well as anything ever attempted.
I think Republicans hate it cause liberals got there first, and it’s a Marxist communist socialist anarchist Maoist dadaist nihilist antidisestablishmentarianist idea, or something.
11 Likes
