Mail voting passes test in state
Getting people to vote by mail sounds like a challenge. Relying on the Postal Service can be risky. Tabulating heaps of ballots can take weeks. There’s a loss in election day spirit when neighbors don’t mingle in a flagdraped garage or fire station. The sight of bowed heads working through the paperwork of democracy is inspiring.
But there’s no arguing with the numbers in this past election. Turnout is through the roof — at the 80% level statewide and in the Bay Area, far above past elections. Few hitches are reported, and the sanctity of the ballot appears preserved. An experiment brought on by worries about spreading the coronavirus is proving successful.
This state is feeling a revival of civic engagement after years of bemoaning a loss. And, please, let’s skip the smoke and noise about fraud, stolen ballots and false counts promoted by a mendacious White House.
Despite the drawbacks, it’s obvious that voters want to cast their ballots by mail. To that end, California should switch its elections from inperson events to a mailin system in the name of inclusion, convenience and fairness. It’s time to go ahead and send out ballots to everyone on the registration books.
That move, monumental as it sounds, shouldn’t be hard to accept. Since 2016, Sacramento, in the person of Secretary of State Alex Padilla, has nudged counties to adopt allmail elections as five other states have done in varying ways. A few counties, including Napa, San Mateo and Santa Clara, took him up, while most held off to watch the results. This year, the pandemic changed the picture. First Gov. Gavin Newsom and then the Legislature endorsed the idea of mailing out ballots to all registered voters, a giant step beyond countylevel initiatives. That move was built on voting patterns that have deepened over the past decade. Before the presidential election, roughly twothirds of the state ballots were postmarked, a slow and steady change in voting habits. Given the choice, voters prefer making their choices at home, not a polling place.
The emerging system is actually a hybrid of new and old methods, at least for now. The numbers of polling places are sharply reduced though counties provide a handful of voting centers and dropoff spots. In advance of election day, the centers allow inperson balloting.
But it’s time to move even further. John Arntz, director of San Francisco’s Department of Elections, is preparing a plan for the Board of Supervisors that would push voting by mail more fully. Only 6% of city voters went to polling places in a record turnout of 443,000 people, he noted.
“This is likely the last pollingplace election in San Francisco,” Arntz said.
At the state level, there’s a need for broad policy. The Legislature should consider a proposed measure by Assembly member Marc Berman, a Menlo Park Democrat who heads an Assembly panel on voting rules, to mail ballots to all voters in state elections.
In a heavily Democratic state, there may be concerns that the changes advantage the majority party. But last week’s results showed Republicans picking up congressional seats in Southern California and voters shooting down Democratic issues ranging from tax increases to bail reform. If a mailin election was a liberal plot, it definitely didn’t pay off.
Voters have sampled the system and found it to their liking in overwhelming numbers. Habits are changing, and it’s time to shift to a system that draws in more people and deepens democracy. The time for mailin voting has arrived.