Forum One: Voting by Mail

The Vote by Mail panel		James K. Galbraith
Fred Taylor		Rosemary Rodriguez
Bill Bradbury		Moderator Mary Jean Collins

For the first of our forums in a series about election reform, Oregon Secretary of State Bill Bradbury provided an overview of Vote By Mail and his office’s management of the program—from describing costs to dispelling notions of fraud in the process. Vote by Mail has reduced the cost of elections in Oregon to 30 precent of what it costs to run elections at the polling place. In the 2004 general election, Oregon had the nation’s third-highest turn out—70 percent—trailing only Minnesota and Wisconsin, both of which allow voters to register on Election Day.

People For the American Way’s forum, held Monday, May 1, 2006, featured a panel discussing Vote by Mail, a program that has been used for the last five years in all of Oregon’s elections. Moderated by PFAW Senior Vice President and National Political Director Mary Jean Collins, experts from across the country discussed voting by mail as a possible solution to voting machine problems, as well as the potential benefits and pitfalls of the program.

Denver City Council President Rosemary Rodriguez is leading the charge in Denver for vote by mail in the November midterm elections. Counties in California are also considering adopting Vote By Mail programs and Arizona may have the issue on the ballot in the 2006 general election. (Updates: In the November 2006 midterm elections, Arizona voters rejected the vote by mail ballot initiative. Additionally, Rosemary Rodriguez has been confirmed by the U.S. Senate as a commissioner on the Election Assistance Committee.)

James K. Galbraith, who is the Lloyd M. Bentsen Jr. Chair in Government and Business Relations at the University of Texas, discussed how vote by mail works and how it can increase voter turnout. Fred Taylor, Arizona State Director of Your Right to Vote, reviewed the potential vote by mail ballot initiative in Arizona.

The Vote by Mail panel was co-sponsored by the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, the NAACP, the National Association of Letter Carriers, the National Education Association, Service Employees International Union, and The Vote By Mail Project.

Forum One: Voting by Mail

Read more about our series of forums on election reform: