Are Polling places obsolete?

Here in Oregon we did away with polling places for the convenience of the US Postal Service several years ago. The people love it, the politicians hated it. What good is that last minute surprise if 70% of the voters have voted already? As the LA Times reports today 32 states now have absentee voting on demand or early voting. Is this a good thing or a bad thing?

For most of U.S. history, the sacred autumnal votes for presidents and Congress have been a near-simultaneous civic ritual across the land. Though barely half of people eligible to vote bother to do so even in most presidential years, election day has provided a powerful image and sense of shared experience for millions. No longer.

In some states, more than half the votes are now cast, and even quietly counted, before election day. Oregon has no polling places, only mail ballots. In some of the 32 states offering a form of advance voting, ballots can be cast up to six weeks early. In states like Ohio, the absence of advance voting created long lines late into election night.

In part, the advent of more-convenient voting procedures is driven by efforts to boost voter participation. Easier voting equals more voting, according to this philosophy. Absentee voting once required a written excuse. Today, thousands use it as a form of early voting. But they're a fraction of the Americans who simply vote early, often on a touch screen, under a variety of new and amended state laws.

In Nevada, which copied and expanded Texas' early voting advances, by election day last month nearly 300,000 of the state's 800,000 eventual voters had cast ballots at schools, groceries and convenience stores, aided by election workers with instant access to countywide records. Votes were cast across town, during lunch, far from home precincts. More than half of Texas ballots were cast before election day, as were nearly two of three in Washington state.

Here in Oregon vote by mail was instituted for special elections in an effort to save money. It proved very popular but it required a state referendum before it applied to all elections because the politicians in the state legislature hated the idea.

Early voting changes the whole closing campaign calculus. Why announce new programs in October if half the votes have already been cast? It also forces campaigns to schedule events and ads in advance voting areas sooner, potentially adding to costs.

This was the second vote by mail presidential election in Oregon. We received our ballots about 3 weeks before election day but no votes were counted until the official election day. The system has been a success here in Oregon and I wouldn't go back. One real upside is we don't have to worry about problems with the touchscreen voting machines of Diebold. You can certainly expect them to fight any attempts to spread vote by mail.