Oregon’s secretary of state Bill Bradbury wrote an op-ed piece for the Washington Post which was reprinted in today’s Virginian-Pilot. Last year, a similar piece by the same author appeared. In both pieces, Bradbury extolls the virtues of voting by mail, which Oregon adopted in 1998. The results of this process cannot be denied.
Fraud-free voting
Oregon is one of only two states in the nation to verify every single voter signature against the signature on that voter’s registration card. Our process is transparent and open to observation. Finally, the returned paper ballots, which are the official record of the election, can be recounted by hand.
High voter turnout
With voting by mail, Oregon’s turnout is consistently among the highest of any state without same-day voter registration.
Up-to-date voter registration lists
Under Oregon law, mailed ballots are not forwarded if a voter has moved, and those returned ballots have allowed us to maintain one of the cleanest and most up-to-date registration lists in the country.
Cost-effective
Voting by mail is also a cost-effective way to run elections, costing taxpayers about 30 percent less than polling-place elections.
A lot of people think poll workers are a waste of resources. I disagree, mainly because so many people (the CNN exit poll pegged it at 6%) decide who to vote for on the day of the election. However, with voting by mail, there would be no need for poll workers and these resources could be used elsewhere.
At this point, I can’t see any downsides to voting by mail. So why haven’t all of the states adopted this? The only arguments I’ve seen in my admittedly brief research is that it is a change from the tradition of voting in polling places. That argument seems weak to me. Just because we’ve always done something a certain way doesn’t mean that is the best way to do it. We used to all do our taxes by hand, too, but almost no one does these days.
Voting by mail solves a lot of the problems with our current system while creating none. If integrity in the voting process is something that we all desire, if increased participation is something that we all desire, then adopting a vote by mail process just makes sense.
VIVIAN J. PAIGE | All Politics is Local 
The article points out that they have lock boxes for dropping off the completed ballots.
Vivian:
That’s correct, but the ballots can also be mailed, according to the article: “The ballot can be either mailed back or dropped off at one of a number of secure sites statewide.”
Another issue I run into in my work is the effectiveness of National Change of Address (NCOA). Often, if one member of a household moves out and reports this, the entire household’s address gets changed in error. With confusing results, of course, since the entire household’s mail will be returned as “Undeliverable”.
Yes, I saw that. I know how unreliable the mail can be. That’s one of the reasons I use electronic filing for tax returns (and have been doing so since the program first started).
Just figured I’d throw out that lock-box thing because it would be an alternative to using the mail, especially if they are conveniently located.
Overall, I’m pretty much convinced that voting by mail is not a good idea.