Bloomington state rep pushes for vote-by-mail

Systems allowing citizens to vote by mail are practiced by only a few states in the nation. But Rep. Matt Pierce, D-Bloomington, hopes the election process will come to fully embrace it.\nBy 2012, Pierce hopes all of Indiana’s votes will be cast through the mail. Pierce said his mail-in voting plan is based on systems already in place in Oregon, Washington and parts of California.\nBeginning in the 2008 general election, the first phase of mail-in voting would allow anyone to send in an absentee ballot, Pierce said. By 2012, the system to cast the ballot by mail would be used.\nPierce said he introduced an amendment in House Bill 1808 last week when the House Elections and Apportionment Committee met. His bill would require all new voting equipment in Indiana to have a paper backup system, so voters can verify their ballots were cast accurately. \n“The idea is to vote absentee by mail and get used to it and then shut the polls down and use the system by 2012,” Pierce said. \nPierce said the difficulty in finding poll workers and training them, are reasons voting by mail would be beneficial.\nOn Election Day, glitches and problems develop that were not foreseen before and have to be dealt with when they occur on the day, Pierce said. The ballot-by-mail system hopes to eliminate these problems and make it easier for voters, he added.\nPierce said he also hopes it would increase voter turnout on Election Day.\n“Oregon did experience an increase in voter turnout higher in the country” after the new system began, he said. “It’s easier to vote and increase voter participation.”\nFor IU College Democrats President Amanda Jenkins, there is something special about going to the polls and casting a vote on Election Day.\n“I don’t think I would vote by mail unless I was out of town on Election Day,” she said.\nStill, Jenkins said she feels mail-in voting would increase turnout, and she is in favor of the bill’s amendment.\n“I voted in the elections this past fall,” she said. “Many people who have to work all day or take care of their children, go to school or don’t have a car will now have easier access to voting.”\nSophomore Sophia Vastek said she already mails in her vote as an absentee voter because she is away at college. Yet Vastek said she feels Pierce’s bill effort won’t change what she already does. \n“I’d prefer to vote in person. It’s not a hassle,” she said. “I doubt it will change how many people vote in elections. People are lazy and it still requires effort to request a ballot and send it in.” \nJenkins said voting by mail allows voters to familiarize themselves with candidates.\n“Voters will have more time to study the ballot and the names and make the informed decision,” Jenkins said. “They can look up each candidate one by one and not have to memorize the information.”\nPierce said Indiana law allows voters only three minutes in the voting booth.\nIf the system is implemented, about two to three weeks before an election, a ballot packet containing a completed ballot and a return envelope would be mailed to each registered voter. The voter would take the completed ballot to a drop site or mail it in.\nTo verify identity and authenticity for every voter using the vote-by-mail system, the signature of the voter on the outside return envelope would have to be compared with the signature on the voter’s registration, Pierce said. If the signatures didn’t match, the papers would be set aside and the voter would be contacted, he said. \nMail-in voting has the potential to reach out to younger generations, Pierce said.\n“I think and hope it will increase the younger population vote,” Jenkins said. “The majority of our generation likes things that are easy to do, so if voting by mailing in a ballot is all it takes, I think more people will vote.”