Oregon Conducts its Elections By Mail????

I've been watching election results at the Politico website for the last few hours, and have been pleased to see the wash of red all across the country - now, of course, as Rush says, the hard work begins, and thenewlyelected Republicans have to fulfill their campagn promises - if they don't do something to help the economy in the next 2 years... Obama will be able to say, "See?"

Anyway, so I'm mousing over the states, and Oregon pops up with a blurb saying, Oregon Conducts its Elections By Mail.

And I'm thinking...What?

Let's see what Wikipedia has to say about it:

Elections in Oregon are all held using a Vote by Mail (VBM) system. This means that all registered voters receive their ballots via postal delivery and can vote from their homes. A state Voters’ Pamphlet is mailed to every household in Oregon about three weeks before each statewide election. It includes information about each measure and candidate in the upcoming election.

Voter registration
Residents of Oregon can register to vote with or without a political party. Monthly and annual voter registration statistics are published by the Oregon Secretary of State.

Online voter registration
On March 1, 2010 Oregon became the fourth state in the country (along with Arizona, Washington, and Kansas) to allow online voter registration.

Campaign finance
The Oregon Constitution allows for a broader right to free speech than at the federal level including the topic of political campaign donations. The Oregon Supreme Court has consistently ruled that campaign contribution limits are a violation of free speech and has struck down many laws and ballot measures that enacted contribution limits. As a result of these rulings, Oregon is one of the only six states that have no campaign contribution limits of any kind.

The most recent attempt to enact campaign contribution limits was Ballot measures 46 and 47 in 2006. Measure 47 passed, but 46 did not, and in the absence of the kind of Constitutional support it would have provided, 47 did not take effect.

Vote by Mail
History
The VBM system was first approved for testing by the Oregon Legislature for local elections in 1981. The system met with fairly widespread success and was made permanent for the majority of counties for local/special elections in 1987. It was used for the first statewide special election in 1993. The Oregon Legislature approved a proposal to expand VBM to primary and general elections in the spring of 1995, but Governor John Kitzhaber vetoed the bill. However by January 1996, Oregon became the first state to conduct a general election totally by mail to fill a vacancy in a federal office when it elected Senator Ron Wyden to replace Bob Packwood with a 66 percent turnout.

In June 1998 supporters of expanding VBM to primary and general elections used the initiative to put the issue on the November general election ballot as Measure 60. No paid signature gatherers were used to put the measure on the ballot – a first since 1994, and on November 3, 1998 Oregon voters decide to expand VBM to primary and general elections by a vote of 757,204 to 334,021.

In the 2000 election cycle, Oregon for the first time used VBM in a Presidential Primary election and then a Presidential General election, with a 79 percent turnout.

Voters’ Pamphlet
A state Voters’ Pamphlet is mailed to every household in Oregon about 3 weeks before each statewide election. It includes information about each measure and candidate in the upcoming election. If a voter does not receive a Voters’ Pamphlet, they can order or pick one up from any County Elections Office, or the Secretary of State’s Office. Some counties may print a voters’ pamphlet with local measures and candidates as well and these may be included with the state pamphlet or mailed separately.

For each statewide election, the Voters’ Pamphlet is also available in an accessible online format at the Oregon Secretary of State's Election Division Website. An audio Voters’ Guide is also available for each statewide election.

Copies of historical voters' pamphlets from Marion County (containing most statewide races and ballot measures) are online at the Oregon State Library.

Balloting
Ballots packs are mailed to every registered voter 14 to 18 days before the election. When the ballot pack comes in the mail, it includes:

* An official ballot
* A secrecy envelope
* A ballot return envelope

After filling out the ballot the voter then places the ballot in the secrecy envelope, then inside the return envelope and must then sign it in a space provided on the outside return envelope. This is then either mailed back through the US mail with first class postage, or dropped off at any County Elections Office or a designated dropsite. Ballots must be received in a County Elections Office or a designated dropsite by 8pm on Election Day (postmarks do not count). If the ballot arrives at the County Elections Office after 8pm on Election Day, it is not counted.

Once received, an Elections Official at the elections office where the ballot is received will compare the signature on the ballot return envelope to the signature on the voter registration card to verify that the voter is registered to vote. Once verified, the secrecy envelope containing the actual ballot is removed and polled with the other ballots. Once the "polls" close at 8pm on Election Day, the ballots are removed form their secrecy envelopes and counted.

2008 Election
Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama won 56.7% of Oregon's vote in 2008, soundly defeating Republican candidate John McCain. Most rural counties favored McCain, though Obama improved the Democratic tickets performance than John Kerry did in 2004, and Obama's strong support in the more urban Willamette Valley allowed him to win the state decisively.

I'm thinking...how much does it cost taxpayers in stamps to vote. (The envelopes are franked...but someone's got to be paying the postage, doubtless out of their taxes. And the number of people who have to compare signatures - how long does that take??? Does Oregon have so few people that votes can be verified and counted by hand in a day?