Seen in the Helena Independent Record:
Helena resident Joe Hollowell said he mailed in his ballot this year, voting for the first time in about a decade.
If he hadn’t received his ballot in his mailbox this fall, he likely wouldn’t have voted, he said.
Officials are calling this year’s city election a success, and several city commissioners said they would be willing to give the mailbox poll another go-round in years to come.
Voter turnout reached a jaw-dropping 61.5 percent, higher than any city vote in the past three decades and almost double the turnout in 2005, when 30.9 percent of Helena voters visited traditional polling stations.
I realize that there are plenty of folks who have at least some reasonable reservations to the idea of voting by mail, including concerns about fraud and voter identification.
However, I can’t help but think about the expense involved in operating polling stations, the lost productivity from standing on line, issues with disabled folks voting (my wife was literally in tears because election day fell on one of her bad days, and she wasn’t physically able to head over to the neighborhood fire station)…. Plus, higher rates of voter turnout are generally seen as a net positive for society (setting aside “bread and circus” concerns).
I wish more jurisdictions would consider vote-by-mail.
