More and more voters are saying no to polls and yes to
convenience, and city council candidates had to start campaigning
earlier this year as a result.
Gilroy – More and more voters are saying no to polls and yes to convenience, and city council candidates had to start campaigning earlier this year as a result.
The number of voters in Santa Clara County who mail in their ballots has increased by more than 320,000 since 2002, when about 9,000 people voted absentee. Many candidates and election officials say the number will continue to rise since state law no longer requires voters to show they are ill or out of town to receive an absentee ballot. Anyone can vote from home now.
In fact, absentee voters are not even called “absentee voters” anymore, but “vote-by-mail” voters, because Sacramento has relaxed requirements since 2002, according to Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters spokesman Matt Moreles. The nonpartisan Web site HelpingAmericansVote.org reports that 35 states, including California, do not require excuses for absentee or early voting and that 15 states permit some form of early voting. Residents in California are allowed to register as permanent absentee voters.
More than any other state, Oregon exhibited its aversion toward polls when it abolished them in 2000: Everyone there votes by mail or does not vote at all.
While that is not the case here, Gilroyans have demonstrated a taste for early voting in years past, and candidates have had to react to the fact that the registrar’s office mailed ballots to absentee voters Oct. 9 this year, 29 days before the election.
Councilman Craig Gartman is challenging Mayor Al Pinheiro for the mayor’s seat, and Planning Commissioners Tim Day and Cat Tucker, former Councilman Bob Dillon, lawyer Perry Woodward and incumbents Roland Velasco and Russ Valiquette are running for the three available council seats.
“Certainly my campaign made an effort to get mailers out in advance and to contact as many voters as we could early in the process,” said Woodward, who added that he votes by mail because he travels frequently (even though that excuse is no longer required by law).
Pinheiro said he also votes by mail and timed his campaign mailers to Oct. 9.
It’s a reflection of modern residents’ busy schedules, the mayor said, but “as long as people vote, it’s a good thing.”
A little less than half of the county’s registered voters voted early during the November ’06 election, according to Moreles.
He said the SCCRV received two-thirds of its absentee ballots the week before election day last year and that the remaining one-third arrived in the two or three weeks before the election.
The chief disadvantage of mail-in ballots is that they are more susceptible to fraud than supervised poll voting, according to studies.
The central argument in favor of absentee voting, though, is that it increases turnout by making it more convenient. Statistics show that states with no-excuse absentee voting have seen a slightly higher turn-out in recent history than states without, but there is no broad consensus on the issue.
Either way, Moreles said state law still requires the county to provide polling sites based on the number of registered voters, regardless of how many participate in the vote-by-mail program.
But since more people are voting by mail, the registrar’s office can process votes earlier (but not tabulate the results until 8pm election night), and poll workers also have “more time and less lines,” Moreles said.
Velasco still prefers standing in line, but he acknowledged the changing tide.
“You’re always trying to go after the lowest-hanging fruit. We know that absentee voters have increased, so we built our campaign strategies around absentee voters,” said Velasco, referring to the fact the he began sending out mailers and knocking on doors earlier this year than he did four years ago.
Gartman agreed, but he said he prefers to vote by mail since it is more convenient.
“Generally like anybody else, I’m working on election day,” Gartman said, “so it’s tough to get to the polling place, and come 6 or 7 o’clock at night, there’s a long line.”
Valiquette used to vote in person until two years ago, when the convenience won him over. Still, he said he does not count on mailers to win his campaign, but on face-to-face time. This has forced him to canvass neighborhoods a little earlier this year.
Monday is the last day for residents to register to vote, and this year may also be the last time a majority of Gilroyans actually go to the polls.
Though he declined to comment on the future of voting, Moreles acknowledged that there was a lot of speculation out there about how voters will cast their votes in the years to come.
Good-bye physical ballots, hello e-mail?
Chris Bone covers City Hall for The Dispatch. Reach him at 847-7109 or cb***@************ch.com.
