# Why don't they do elections like Oregon?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-they-do-elections-like-oregon/773417
**Category:** Politics & Elections
**Created:** [November 29, 2016, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-they-do-elections-like-oregon/773417 "2016-11-29T23:22:31Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Translucent\_Daydream](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Translucent_Daydream)
#### Post date: [November 29, 2016, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-they-do-elections-like-oregon/773417/1 "2016-11-29T23:22:31Z")
I moved to Oregon about 3 years ago. It blew me away when I got my OR driver’s license, they automatically registered me to vote.
Then they mailed me my ballot. It only cost me a postage stamp to vote, and I think I could have taken it in by hand if I wanted to save on the stamp.
What gives? Why don’t other states do it this way? Why the lines and the general suckery that goes on with voting? In 2012 when I tried to vote in Texas, the lady at the voting office told me that my new voter’s registration card wouldn’t be available until after the election. In 2008 I waited in line for 2 hours to vote, causing me to miss work that day.
It seems to me that all this recount whining and fraud accusations from both sides would largely go away if they had the damn paper ballots with signatures on them. Maybe I’m dumb but it seems to be the only smart way to do this that doesn’t involve a machine. Machines with screens scare old people.
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### Author:  [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)
#### Post date: [November 29, 2016, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-they-do-elections-like-oregon/773417/2 "2016-11-29T23:28:56Z")
Washington mailed me a ballot a few weeks early. There was a drop box a few blocks from where I lived, so I was able to walk over and drop it off a few days before the deadline. No postage. (Though I could also have mailed it back.)
I’m not sure if I registered a few years ago and then didn’t vote, or if I was automatically registered at some point in time, but I apparently already was.
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### Author:  [@Translucent\_Daydream](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Translucent_Daydream)
#### Post date: [November 29, 2016, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-they-do-elections-like-oregon/773417/3 "2016-11-29T23:30:30Z")
> [@Sage\_Rat](#):
>
> Washington mailed me a ballot a few weeks early. There was a drop box a few blocks from where I lived, so I was able to walk over and drop it off a few days before the deadline. No postage. (Though I could also have mailed it back.)
>
> I’m not sure if I registered a few years ago and then didn’t vote, or if I was automatically registered at some point in time, but I apparently already was.
Maybe you are one of those illegal voters DT is talking about. Haha:D
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### Author:  [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)
#### Post date: [November 29, 2016, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-they-do-elections-like-oregon/773417/4 "2016-11-29T23:33:55Z")
I can’t speak for democrats and why they do not push this, but the realpolitik answer is that the GOP is interested in making voting as hard as possible.
The reason? Both parties are made up of coalitions of various groups. The GOP is a coalition of groups like social conservatives, libertarians, pro-business conservatives, etc.
The democratic party is a coalition of liberals, minorities, the disadvantaged (the disabled, the poor), etc.
The disadvantaged (who make up about 1/4-1/3 of the dem coalition) barely bother to vote. At the same time, minorities (and millennials for that reason) are less likely to have a voter ID or be able to get to a polling place.
I’m not trying to politicize your answer, but the answer is political. I can’t speak for why states with democratic state rule do not making voting easier, but the reason GOP states are pushing voter ID laws, making it harder to get registered, eliminating early voting, reducing the number of polling places, etc. is because it lowers voter turnout among democrats.
In my county, after Obama won the election in 2008 (in part due to early voting) the GOP passed a law to make early voting much harder in future elections.
The fraud accusations the GOP makes aren’t real, they are just a smokescreen to justify voter suppression efforts that make it harder for the disadvantaged, millennials and minorities to vote.
So there is your answer.
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### Author:  [@Drum\_God](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drum_God)
#### Post date: [November 29, 2016, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-they-do-elections-like-oregon/773417/5 "2016-11-29T23:36:00Z")
Because the people in power don’t want you to be able to vote.
It really is that simple. I am in Texas and heavily involved in the voting process. The whole thing is replete with regulations that make very little sense and do not actually address their stated purpose (photo ID, for example). The whole process is designed to make voting a giant pain. Our legislature convenes in January and is already salivating over the obstacles the plan to implement. They are confident in a US Justice Department that will have little interest in preserving the right to vote.
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### Author:  [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)
#### Post date: [November 29, 2016, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-they-do-elections-like-oregon/773417/6 "2016-11-29T23:48:29Z")
> [@Translucent\_Daydream](#):
>
> I moved to Oregon about 3 years ago. It blew me away when I got my OR driver’s license, they automatically registered me to vote.
>
> Then they mailed me my ballot. It only cost me a postage stamp to vote…
You have to pay postage to vote by mail!!! In CA, we get a postage pre-paid envelope to mail our ballots in. You guys are soooooo far behind!!! 🆒
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### Author:  [@Translucent\_Daydream](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Translucent_Daydream)
#### Post date: [November 29, 2016, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-they-do-elections-like-oregon/773417/7 "2016-11-29T23:50:10Z")
> [@Drum\_God](#):
>
> Because the people in power don’t want you to be able to vote.
>
> It really is that simple. I am in Texas and heavily involved in the voting process. The whole thing is replete with regulations that make very little sense and do not actually address their stated purpose (photo ID, for example). The whole process is designed to make voting a giant pain. Our legislature convenes in January and is already salivating over the obstacles the plan to implement. They are confident in a US Justice Department that will have little interest in preserving the right to vote.
My parents live outside Tyler in Malakoff in East Texas, they couldn’t get their cards updated in 6 months to vote. They started trying when they found out Trump was the Republican guy.
My grandparents in Austin (very old people) used to be able to go out and vote, but couldn’t this year as my grandfather is pretty infirm at this point. They for some reason couldn’t do absentee ballots. She tried to explain what the elections office told her to me but I didn’t really wanna jump into it because I thought it would have pissed me off.
My brother stood in line to vote for 3 hours in Plano where he lives, or so he says, I don’t speak with him regularly so I wouldn’t know.
They were all shocked when they found out that we all got to vote on our couch. My brother told me that they just threw my ballot away anyway since I didn’t vote for DT. :dubious:
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### Author:  [@Translucent\_Daydream](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Translucent_Daydream)
#### Post date: [November 29, 2016, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-they-do-elections-like-oregon/773417/8 "2016-11-29T23:54:00Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#):
>
> You have to pay postage to vote by mail!!! In CA, we get a postage pre-paid envelope to mail our ballots in. You guys are soooooo far behind!!! 🆒
I don’t know enough to have an opinion, but would you say that blue states are more likely to have this system where they just mail you the damn thing and you send it in?
Seems to me that Republicans would want this too since most of their voting base seems to be old, and rural. I grew up in a North East Texas town of 600 way out in the middle of a cow shit pile. You could vote at the school, but the school was 15 miles from my house. If we didn’t take our super old neighbors to vote, they wouldn’t have been able to make the drive.
I just don’t get it.
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### Author:  [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)
#### Post date: [November 30, 2016, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-they-do-elections-like-oregon/773417/9 "2016-11-30T00:47:13Z")
John Oliver [covered this issue in depth](https://youtube.com/watch?v=rHFOwlMCdto) on a segment on _Last Week Tonight_ back in February. As Oliver points out, the requirement not only to take off time from work to go to a polling place or even getting an ID can be an onerous task for many working voters and presents an especially disproportionate burden to lower class workers who may not have the time or means to easily travel during hours when polling stations and voter registration offices are open. Or, as he puts it, “Voter impersonation fraud is incredibly rare. One researcher who tracked it closely found from 2000 to 2014 there were 31 possible incidents out of over a billion votes cast.” (I’m not going to do justice to his “one stabby crab” analogy; you’ll just have to watch the video.) Why the impetus to support laws that hinder voters in low socioeconomic classes? Just move on to [9:45](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rHFOwlMCdto&t=9m45s) where the agenda is laid bare by the very people who support it. Keep watching to see where voter impersonation is actually a problem.
And let me remind you, as John Oliver has pointed out repeatedly, [he is not a journalist](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=l17TPkXGVCo&t=2m48s). He’s a comedian, albeit one whose focus is on politics and who is most notable for self-effacing comments about his lack of fashion sense. Why are you hearing this essential undermining of the very principle of protected Constitutional rights from an HBO comedy show, or [late night talk show hosts](https://youtu.be/yfJeuk9Qizw) (who, to be fair, are getting their information from respected journalistic agencies like he _New York Times_, _Washington Post_, and open source investigative journalism organization [ProPublica.com](http://ProPublica.com)), and not on CNN, MSNBC, or network news programs? That’s a very good question, and clearly I think the answer is that they are more focused on the [octopus versus crab](https://youtu.be/Ar5WJrQik2o) debate, and whether there exists a Constitutional right for crabs to bear arms.
Stranger
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### Author:  [@Do\_Not\_Taunt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Do_Not_Taunt)
#### Post date: [November 30, 2016, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-they-do-elections-like-oregon/773417/10 "2016-11-30T00:52:55Z")
As far as I know, the only difference between how elections are conducted in Washington (state) and Oregon is that here, if you get your ballot postmarked by election day (or in the dropbox by 8pm on election day), you know with reasonable confidence it’ll be counted. I believe in Oregon you need to mail it early enough that you know it’ll be received by election day.
Personally, I prefer our system, even if it does mean that really close statewide elections have a bit of a waiting period associated with them as ballots trickle in.
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### Author:  [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)
#### Post date: [November 30, 2016, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-they-do-elections-like-oregon/773417/11 "2016-11-30T01:00:09Z")
Postal voting is not a panacea; [there has been abuse](http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-26520836) of postal votes in the UK.
> [@](#):
>
> Richard Mawrey QC, who tries cases of electoral fraud, told the BBC that people should not be able to apply for postal votes as a matter of course.
>
> …
>
> In some of those areas, the BBC has heard allegations that political activists are pressuring families into voting for their candidate, or taking ballot papers away to fill them in, which is illegal.
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### Author:  [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)
#### Post date: [November 30, 2016, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-they-do-elections-like-oregon/773417/12 "2016-11-30T01:02:44Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#):
>
> You have to pay postage to vote by mail!!! In CA, we get a postage pre-paid envelope to mail our ballots in. You guys are soooooo far behind!!! 🆒
It depends what county. In Alameda County the envelopes are not postage paid. I read an article that said that some county election offices are willing to pony up the postage and others aren’t.
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### Author:  [@HurricaneDitka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HurricaneDitka)
#### Post date: [November 30, 2016, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-they-do-elections-like-oregon/773417/13 "2016-11-30T01:09:58Z")
> [@Translucent\_Daydream](#):
>
> It seems to me that all this recount whining and fraud accusations from both sides would largely go away if they had the damn paper ballots with signatures on them.
Did you miss [the accusations of a Democrat absentee ballot mill in North Carolina](https://www.carolinajournal.com/news-article/democrat-absentee-ballot-mill-alleged-in-bladen-county/)?
In answer to the OP’s question: my county, the most populous one in ruby-red-state Utah went to an all-mail-in ballot format this year. They sent everyone a postage-paid envelope and ballot to fill out about 4 weeks before the election. After you sent your ballot in, you could even check on the state elections website to confirm that it had been received and counted.
Even before this, I had signed up as for an absentee ballot (which was very simple in Utah) and have been voting that way for several years.
The idea that evil Republicans oppose mail-in or absentee voting certainly doesn’t stick here in Utah at least. We are, for all intents and purposes, a one-party state. If they wanted to quash mail-in voting, they could.
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### Author:  [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)
#### Post date: [November 30, 2016, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-they-do-elections-like-oregon/773417/14 "2016-11-30T02:20:11Z")
> [@suranyi](#):
>
> It depends what county. In Alameda County the envelopes are not postage paid. I read an article that said that some county election offices are willing to pony up the postage and others aren’t.
I didn’t know that! I’m in Santa Clara County. I’m a bit surprised that the state doesn’t have a policy about that, but then again everything about US elections is so decentralized. That can be a good thing (harder to hack), but does make for quite the patchwork.
If you think about it, though, you are probably saving the county much more than the cost of a postage stamp by voting by mail.
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### Author:  [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)
#### Post date: [November 30, 2016, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-they-do-elections-like-oregon/773417/15 "2016-11-30T02:29:23Z")
Nobody has to wait hours to vote in Texas. Early voting is available in numerous places for weeks before Election Day. We Texans have ample opportunities to vote.
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### Author:  [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)
#### Post date: [November 30, 2016, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-they-do-elections-like-oregon/773417/16 "2016-11-30T02:52:16Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#):
>
> I’m not trying to politicize your answer, but the answer is political. I can’t speak for why states with democratic state rule do not making voting easier, but the reason GOP states are pushing voter ID laws, making it harder to get registered, eliminating early voting, reducing the number of polling places, etc. is because it lowers voter turnout among democrats.
That could be the reason for some states. But Washington went to all mail in balloting under a Republican Secretary of State. It’s cheaper, less overhead, easier to administrate, fewer poll workers, etc. all things that small-government, fiscal conservatives should like. And they did, here.
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### Author:  [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)
#### Post date: [November 30, 2016, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-they-do-elections-like-oregon/773417/17 "2016-11-30T03:08:23Z")
> [@HurricaneDitka](#):
>
> Did you miss [the accusations of a Democrat absentee ballot mill in North Carolina](https://www.carolinajournal.com/news-article/democrat-absentee-ballot-mill-alleged-in-bladen-county/)?..
Some guy signed on to seventy one absentee forms as a witness for the absentee voter. OK, some reason he’s not supposed to do that? I might volunteer to do something like that myself, go around to shut-ins, perhaps, volunteer to help them complete their forms. Why is that suspicious? Because he worked for a Dem “get out the vote” thingy? Well, that’s what he was doing, yes, getting out the vote?
Presumably, you read this story, otherwise you would not be ringing the alarm. So, whats the deal?
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### Author:  [@HurricaneDitka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HurricaneDitka)
#### Post date: [November 30, 2016, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-they-do-elections-like-oregon/773417/18 "2016-11-30T03:28:51Z")
> [@elucidator](#):
>
> Some guy signed on to seventy one absentee forms as a witness for the absentee voter. OK, some reason he’s not supposed to do that? I might volunteer to do something like that myself, go around to shut-ins, perhaps, volunteer to help them complete their forms. Why is that suspicious? Because he worked for a Dem “get out the vote” thingy? Well, that’s what he was doing, yes, getting out the vote?
>
> Presumably, you read this story, otherwise you would not be ringing the alarm. So, whats the deal?
I don’t claim to know any more than the story, and [the accompanying complaint](https://gallery.mailchimp.com/67f0361f3af450acafd9830a7/files/ElectionProtestForm_Bladen_Co_Soil_Water_Signed.pdf), purport:
> [@](#):
>
> In particular, one very active absentee ballot “witness,” Deborah Monroe, who was apparently personally validating validated at least 67 mail-in absentee ballots, appears to have written in “Franklin Graham” as a write-in candidate at least 71 times.
The suspicion is that Deborah Monroe, and perhaps others, fraudulently filled out scores of ballots and submitted them in, essentially voting many many times on behalf of others.
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### Author:  [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)
#### Post date: [November 30, 2016, 6:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-they-do-elections-like-oregon/773417/19 "2016-11-30T06:34:16Z")
Did you notice how much of this appears to depend on the opinion of a “forensic handwriting expert”?
At any rate, we are riveted by the Baden County Soil and Water Conservation Supervisor struggle, and will await further developments with bated breath.
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### Author:  [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)
#### Post date: [November 30, 2016, 12:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-they-do-elections-like-oregon/773417/20 "2016-11-30T12:01:22Z")
Why don’t we do mail-in? Because as liberals are fond of correctly pointing out, in person voter fraud is rare. Absentee ballot fraud is not very rare.
[http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/absentee-ballot-fraud/](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/absentee-ballot-fraud/)
> **[Absentee/mail-in ballot vote fraud](https://ballotpedia.org/Absentee_ballot_vote_fraud)**
>
> Ballotpedia: The Encyclopedia of American Politics
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