When it comes to voting, there's no place like home

As a young boy, I recall visiting the Queen Anne Library with my mother and watching her vote. She let me join her behind the curtain, and though I could not see what she was doing, I sensed it was important.

In those days, everybody voted at the polls and Mom often lingered at the library chatting with neighbors.

Those days are gone. Last year, I went to the polls to drop off my absentee ballot and found the poll site nearly empty. The reason is simple — King County voters now vote by mail in overwhelming numbers. In fact, over 70 percent of voters in the last general election chose to vote by mail, an increase of 20 percent in just three years. King County Elections Director Dean Logan predicts this shift to voting by mail will continue as new voters largely opt to become permanent absentee voters.

Recognizing this shift, the King County Citizens' Election Oversight Committee recently recommended that King County demonstrate the ability to conduct a special election entirely by mail.

Counties throughout Washington state have already done this, and Skamania, Ferry, Okanogan, Clallam and Pend Oreille counties perform all elections by mail. I urge Logan to ensure that King County conducts a special election entirely by mail, hopefully as soon as 2005.

After King County successfully performs an entire election by mail, it should be encouraged to follow the example of the state of Oregon, which recently moved to an exclusive vote-by-mail system for all elections. Such a system has four important benefits.

• First, a vote-by-mail system increases voter turnout. In Oregon's first vote-by-mail election, voter turnout increased by 12 percent.

Many citizens only vote during the presidential election or general elections, while special elections and primaries are often overlooked. A ballot received in the mail is a particularly helpful reminder for those elections that lack publicity.

• Establishing one voting system will save significant tax dollars for King County. For example, in 1996, Oregon performed a special congressional election by mail and saved an estimated $1 million. Oregon then held its first statewide vote-by-mail election in 2000 and saved an additional $600,000.

Not surprisingly, it is expensive to operate two voting systems. Poll voting requires paying poll workers and renting polling locations, and includes the costly upkeep of onsite voting-tabulation equipment.

With the county budget in crisis and facing $20 million in cuts this year alone, it becomes harder to justify the expense of poll voting for a dwindling number of citizens.

• Voting by mail promotes the integrity of the voting process by providing a paper trail of each ballot.

Unlike controversial touch-screen voting, voting by mail allows for accurate recounts and challenges to tabulated results. Voting by mail is safe, secure and reliable.

• Voting by mail creates a more efficient database of registered voters.

When a ballot is returned to the county because the voter no longer resides at a particular address, that voter is placed on inactive status to eventually be removed from county records if no longer eligible.

With poll voting, ineligible voters can remain on poll books for years, allowing for potential voter fraud and inaccurate registered-voter counts.

Of course, there is one disadvantage to an exclusive vote-by-mail system — the loss of polling locations where citizens come together as a community to vote.

But the fact that over 70 percent of our voters are choosing to vote by mail, and with those numbers increasing, King County can no longer justify the costs associated with maintaining poll voting when only a small percentage of the population chooses that option.

If King County moves to an exclusive vote-by-mail system, I will miss someday taking my own children to the polls.

But times change. Perhaps those citizens, like me, who grew up watching their parents vote at the polls, can begin a new tradition of gathering around the dining room table and explaining to our children how the election system works using our ballots, voting guides and campaign literature.

As Oregon discovered, the benefits of an exclusive vote-by-mail system are too powerful to ignore. Adopting one voting system for King County will increase voter turnout, save taxpayer dollars, preserve the integrity of the voting process and help make our elections department more efficient.

Metropolitan King County Councilman Bob Ferguson represents Northeast Seattle. His mother still votes at the Queen Anne Library. For more information or to read the King County Citizens' Election Oversight Committee report, visit www.metrokc.gov/council or www.metrokc.gov/elections