Mail-In Voting Is a Travesty of the Democratic Process

Seattlest treats our vote like a Bible Belt teenager treats her virginity. Despite what you may have read in that awesome New Yorker article this week, that means we cherish it, we love it, we clutch it to our breast and imagine heaven on Earth (sometime, far off in the future). We want to be there in person when it's given away, or cast, or whatever. We certainly don't want to drop it in a box and hope for the best or clip it to our door along with the Netflix and the outgoing bills. We want the lady pictured to the right to walk us through the Big Event.

So we went to our neighborhood polling place this morning and waited a few minutes for a flat surface to open up. Unfortunately we got one of those little cubby holes and not the coveted piano spot in the church basement, but afterwards we slid our ballot into the big green box and watched the counter increment by one (our unofficial exit poll shows Barack Obama winning 100% to 0). A poll worker handed us a sticker--which we are now wearing--that says, "i voted." It also says, "a farewell to polls." Which sucks.

From now on we'll be mailing it in along with the rest of the state. The phrase itself, "mailing it in," has come to mean doing something half-assed, nonchalantly, or without due attention. It's a half step away from "phoning it in," or however else we'll be devaluing effort in the future--"texting it in" or whatever--and we don't want to "mail it in." We don't want America mailing it in. We mailed in the last presidential election and that didn't work out so well. "Well done, United States populace, you really mailed it in on Tuesday." Does that sound like a well-functioning Democracy? We want to say, "Well done, registered voters in the United States of America, you showed up in-person, awake and alert (an aside: Seattlest trimmed the beard to go vote today. Shit you not.), and voted.

We have scant enough contact with our neighbors. You avert your eyes when you pass us on the sidewalk, we roll ours when you order something ridiculous in the cafe in front of us, and that's about it. Sometimes we come over to your house for soup. The least we can do is vote next to each other. We enjoy touching elbows with you while we fill in our ovals and jokingly ask you what you got for number seven, and we'll miss it in the future.

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By Dan in Miscellaneous on November 4, 2008 11:20 AM

Comments [rss]

Euromutt

I'm with Dan on this one. I'm all in favor of alternative methods of people who can't spare the time to go to the polling station, but voting in a booth and dropping the completed form into the ballot box just gives me this increased feeling of actively involving myself in the democratic process.

And I've missed it. I immigrated from the Netherlands in 2002, and though I've been allowed to vote in national-level elections, it's had to be by absentee ballot. Then I got American citizenship last year, but at the time I lived in Thruston Co., which went completely postal (so to speak) a few years prior. Since July, I live in King Co., and I've greatly enjoyed taking my 2 year-old son to the polling station for the state primaries, and today.

Troy Morris

There is something quintessentially wholesome about arriving at the polling place. But when you're looking at upwards of 80% participation, it stops being cute and starts turning people off.

Both? Yeah, I'd prefer to have and eat my election cake.

Especially with the counting halt BlueShaman brought up. Count 'em all. No matter what. Fuck, do it twice especially with all the money you're saving with no polling places.

James Callan

To each their own, but mourning your neighborhood polling place seems oddly like mourning the DMV.

BigGreenFrank

"This will be the first time in my life the presidential candidate I voted for will actually win"

I'm gonna go ahead and guess you said the same thing in 2000 and 2004...

Don't count your chickens, there buddy...

BlueShaman

Long lines and long waits are common only since 'they' cut back on poll locations, consolidating many neighborhood polling places into one large, less personal and often inefficient polling place.

The one year I voted absentee, my vote was not recorded. I vote every election and was peeved to find that my vote didn't count, wasn't counted and wouldn't be since "The race was over 50% of the vote, so we didn't count the absentees after a certain point." Dandy.

I am firmly AGAINST mail in voting unless one actually chooses to go that route.

My 2 bits.

Dan

I may have overstated the case a bit. I know that the ability to mail in ballots increases turnout and all that, and I don't want to imply that absentee or mail-in ballots don't have a place in the process. When it comes at the expense of my neighborhood polling place, though, I get upset. 3 live polling places in the future? I guarantee I won't be able to walk to any of them like I did this morning.

Jeremy

This is actually the first time I ever voted at the polls--I turned 18 in Oregon and we were already all-absentee (though I believe they have polling places still, too). I registered absentee here, but I had to change my voter registration a few months ago and the absentee part appears to have disappeared.

Whatever the case, going to the polls was strange. It was strange. I have never gone in to vote without plenty of information about every race near at hand. I felt like whipping out my iPhone to double-check everything. But somehow it all seemed worth it this time. This will be the first time in my life the presidential candidate I voted for will actually win.

bpm2000

i would not vote if you couldn't mail in. cant wait for online voting to happen at some point.

davidswidler

Right on Dan! PVS Unite

partyfernandez

there is absolutely no way that the mail-in process doesn't increase voter turnout. can you imagine if going to the polling station was our only option, and you either had to get there before work, or rush there after work.....with every other adult who works 9'ish-to-5'ish on a tuesday? it'd be a mess. the mail-in process increases voter turnout and makes sense.

that said, i have no problem with what fatcat said about keeping the stations open as a secondary option.

James Callan

@fatcat1111: I heard on KUOW this morning that King Co. will maintain 3 live polling places in future elections, per state(?) law. So in-person voting remains possible. Just even less convenient.

James Callan

I switched to permanent absentee status several years ago, and I don't want to go back. I can take my time filling out my ballot and don't have to find parking or wait in line.

Anyone have any data on whether or not vote-by-mail increases, decreases, or has no effect on turnout? On the one hand, makes it easier; on the other hand, makes it easier to forget.

Troy Morris

I loved going into the polling place as well, but it does increase voter "turnout."

So what's more important? Voting or rubbing elbows?

Fuck it, throw a block party with TVs in the windows so everyone can watch the results pour in.

Be the change we need, Dan! :)

fatcat1111

First of all, I agree that polling places should be maintained. However I think they should be the secondary means of voting - sort of a backup for people who somehow didn't get their ballot in the mail or what have you.

What I like: Being deliberate with my voting. Preferably with a beer and the internet at hand.

What I don't like: Standing in line in the cold.

All across America people don't vote because they're too sick to stand outside for an hour, or because they have to work and the polls close early (in Virginia they close at 7, for example), or because they have to go out of town, or... well the list goes on and on. Around the world, where postal voting is the norm voter turnout is higher.

Matt G1

Voting online would inherently skew the voice of those rich enough to have computers vs. those without access. Whereas most people can afford a pen and a stamp.

MvB

Oddly enough, I've been watching Facebook's vote counter scroll past 2 million this morning and wondering why I couldn't have voted online. I am happy to get together with fellow citizens for events with some purpose, but getting together for a private vote seems...perverse.

bilco

While I'm with you on disliking mail voting, I have to raise an objection to the 'Bible-belt teenage/virginity" analogy. These kids ain't saints!

http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/2006/09/12/USTPstats.pdf

Overall US Pregnancy rate for teenagers 15-19: 84

Mississippi - 103

Alabama - 90

Georgia - 95

South Carolina - 89

If you want a hold-tight virgin, try

Maine - 52

New Hampshire - 47

VT 44

Either these New Englanders are:

1) More virginal

2) Smart enough to use birth control

or... It's too damn cold to screw!