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24 September 2007

Why mail ballots are bad

Yesterday, during an exchange of emails with a legislator on what I would call government reform, the recent trend of cities (Whitefish, Missoula, among others) holding municipal elections by mail ballot arose. I said that I thought holding these elections — indeed all elections — by mail was a terrible mistake. He asked, “Why are mail-in ballots bad?”

In my reply I made three points:

First, it turns election day into election month (or some extended period). If ballots are cast during a long period of time instead of on a single day, voters are no longer making a decision after having been exposed to the same events. They are no longer applying their knowledge and beliefs to a shared set of facts. I know that reality departs a bit from that ideal, but the principle is sound and I think we should make every attempt to observe it.

Suppose, for example, that you are on trial for murder…falsely accused, of course. The prosecutor begins a powerful presentation, but you know the facts and law are on your side, and you look forward to presenting your case and exposing the prosecutor as a witch hunter. After what seems an eternity, the prosecution rests — but before you can begin your defense, the judge turns to the jury and says, “Now that you have half of the facts, you know all you need to know to make an intelligent decision. You may cast your vote any time you like. Just write ‘guilty’ or ‘not guilty’ and mail your ballot to the bailiff. Don't bother returning to court unless you want to. We’ll let you know if we need a second ballot.”

Second, I have concerns over security. Our system of casting secret ballots in polling places is the result of decades of efforts to clean-up elections. A public polling place protects voters. They can cast their ballot in the privacy of the voting booth without coercion. No one can tap them on the shoulder and say, “Honey, in this family we vote for Republicans. Blacken the circle by Jones' name.” Outside the polling place, that protection disappears. Human nature being what it is, I have no difficulty imagining situations in which a dictatorial member of a household sits his family around a table while they mark their ballots according to his instructions. Nor do I have difficulty imagining votes being bought and sold in the privacy of a home.

I also think it’s unwise to have marked ballots accumulating for days or weeks in the offices of clerks and recorders. Too many things can go wrong.

Third, government is a community affair, and I think an election should be an eyeball-to-eyeball community event. We vote as individuals, but I think we should cast our votes in the presence of our neighbors to remind ourselves that our votes have consequences for others as well as for ourselves. Going to our neighborhood polling place is one of the glues that hold our communities together — and it’s a much stronger glue than the adhesive on an envelope or the back of a stamp.

Montana's stampede to conducting elections by mail ballot continues to perplex me. There is, as I've noted before, some evidence mail ballots improve turnout in some low interest elections such as school board elections — but perishing little or no evidence that it improves turnout in general elections. The best cure for low turnout elections is moving them to the general election in even-numbered years.