I Voted by Mail for Ten Years - a confession
/As we confront the specter of an important election (Shucks! I’m on the ballot!) in the face of a pandemic, it might help to know that I’ve voted by mail - exclusively by mail - for ten years. Can my experience in Washington State inform a process we might have to undertake for our upcoming primary? Perhaps, in some ways.
First, a few caveats:
When I moved to Washington, the state had vote-by-mail all figured out. Nobody was facing a crisis.
I loved it - but, as you know, I’m kind of an odd duck. Not all voters would respond the way I did, for sure.
I did miss one thing: I really missed going to my local polling place, as I had done in Green Bay and in Florida, and seeing my neighbors there. (Okay, I can sacrifice that during a pandemic.)
As we consider moving quickly to a mail-in vote for our area, know that we can’t possibly reach perfection on the first go-round. But let me just give you a vision of how this could work, eventually. Here’s my Washington voting experience.
Several weeks before the election date, I received in the mail MY ballot, including only the ballot issues and candidates applicable to me. It came with a special return envelope and clear instructions. At the same time, I received a booklet in my mailbox, perhaps 50 pages. Printed on basic paper, in black and white, the booklet included everything I needed to know to vote intelligently. (As I gleefully pored over that book, I wondered how many of my neighbors found it equally intriguing; I wondered how many never even opened it.) Here’s what the book contained:
Instructions and an orientation to the material I’d find in the book. It included a table of contents by municipality and district, so I could skip the sections that didn’t apply to me.
A full page for every candidate in each race: headshot, bio, personal statement and platform, endorsements.
Several pages laying out each ballot issue:
The change for which we’d be voting
An explanation of the fiscal implications of a decision for or against
A statement “for” by an identified party
A statement “against” by an identified party
Note: Sometimes the statements for or against were written by the League of Women Voters. I confess that I simply voted along with LWV - although I wasn’t a member - because I suspect they might be the best-informed voters in the country.
And then I would set them aside - the ballot and the booklet - and wait for a time when I could sit down with a cup of coffee and begin my studies. I usually took two weeks to complete my ballot, taking it one race or one ballot issue at a time, reading carefully and then marking my ballot. I will tell you (but don’t tell anyone else!): I really enjoyed it!
When my ballot was complete, I folded it as instructed and placed it in the special envelope and added my signature where required. Then I walked a few blocks to find the temporary ballot drop-off box that had been delivered during the voting period; mine was usually in front of a public library, right on the street. I’d drop in my ballot, just as if mailing it, recycle my booklet, and wait to hear the results of the election.
In short, I found voting by mail a nearly perfect solution for me, because I love to read and contemplate and weigh options and cast my ballot thoughtfully. I loved the convenience of being spoon-fed all the information. It did occur to me, though, that much of that preparations and printing and mailing expenditure might have been wasted on voters who aren’t weird like me.
And, as I mentioned above, I missed the polling place, the flag, the voting ritual, the excitement.
This year, during a community health crisis, we will do what we must. If that means we have to vote by mail, surely we won’t carry it off without a hitch on the first go-round. But, as you complete your ballot, I urge you to keep in mind the public servants who scrambled to make this option possible for us - and keep in mind too what a well-oiled machine this mail-in vote could become, should we choose to pursue it and perfect it. We could do worse.