No turning back in Oregon, which pioneered voting by mail

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Running an election by mail is a major undertaking, involving the U.S. Postal Service, armies of volunteers and even librarians.

But for election officials and voters in Oregon — which pioneered all vote-by-mail in the nation 20 years ago — there’s no turning back to the old way of having people cast ballots at neighborhood polling places.

They cite its convenience and security. Democrats and Republicans alike dismiss President Donald Trump’s attacks on vote-by-mail as a vehicle for fraud.

“He’s afraid to count the votes of the people,” said Bill Bradbury, a Democrat who was secretary of state during Oregon’s first all vote-by-mail election.

Since Oregon took the plunge, Colorado, Hawaii, Utah and Washington state have followed. Other states are edging toward it, at least this year, amid concerns that forcing voters to polling places will reduce turnout and expose them to the coronavirus.

State Elections Director Steve Trout said officials from around 30 states have asked him for advice about expanding mail-in voting. He says it’s important to establish a relationship with the U.S. Postal Service.

Trump’s attempts to deprive the Postal Service of more money to make it harder to process mail-in ballots has created uneasiness in Oregon, although election managers say postal officials have reassured them.

Postal workers expedite millions of ballots to voters and then bring completed ones to county election offices, where they are tracked using bar codes. On Election Day, local election officers have even gone to post offices to help watch for late-arriving ballots.

“Fortunately, Oregon has over two decades of experience working with our local partners at USPS and has an excellent working relationship with them to ensure ongoing support for our elections,” said Secretary of State Bev Clarno, the state’s highest-ranking Republican.

The state has numerous safeguards to try to prevent fraud.

Each signed ballot is examined by workers at county election offices to ensure that voter signatures match the digital versions on file. Each ballot return envelope contains a unique bar code that cannot be duplicated to make sure voters can return just one ballot, Clarno said.

Her spokeswoman, Laura Fosmire, cited statistics indicating that fraud is negligible. After the 2016 general election, 54 cases were referred to law enforcement for possible prosecution. In less than half those cases, 22, people were found guilty of voting in two states. That accounted for far less than 1% of ballots cast.

Still, the president’s attacks on mail-in voting — a practice he also uses — have some people wondering if the process could be made even more secure.

Shelby Babcock, 26, lives in the tiny town of Hines in sparsely populated Eastern Oregon, a Republican bastion in the Democrat-leaning state. She likes voting by mail because it means she doesn’t have to take time off from her job as a cook to stand in line at a polling station and just has to walk five minutes from her home to the post office.

She thinks having a fingerprint verification might tighten security of the ballots even more.

“I have to put my thumbprint every time I have to cash my check at the bank,” Babcock said. “They’re doing that for money, so why aren’t they doing that for votes?”

Babcock voted for Trump in 2016 but is undecided this year.

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