‘Oregon’ Category

Saturday, September 20th, 2008

Vote By Tweet

According to the Early Voting Information Center at Reed College, 28 states allow no-excuse absentee voting by mail, including Oregon, where everybody votes by mail. Well, some of the folks that will be dropping their ballots in the mailbox this year (or already have) are abuzz on Twitter about their unique way, and lack of specific day, to vote. I’ve been following and tweeting about it all morning. Check it out.

Twitter Search

Voting by mail isn’t universally lauded as a solution to America’s low voter participation, however. As I explored when I visited the main postal sorting facility in Los Angeles, vote-by-mail may cut out one part of the American voting system that many people have come to rely on: the secret ballot.

* 9/23 UPDATE: Other cool Twitter voting searches I’ve been doing are early voting, voting early, and absentee ballot.

Friday, May 16th, 2008

Why Vote By Mail?

Oregon is the only state in the Union that votes entirely by mail, and as NPR’s Ina Jaffe reported last week, that’s not only changing the way campaigns conduct their get-out-the-vote efforts, it also removes the tradition of the secret ballot entirely from Oregon’s voting system. Yesterday I met with United States Postal Service Communications Program Specialist Larry H. Dozier to learn more about voting-by-mail.

Monday, May 12th, 2008

Oregon, Where Everybody Votes By Mail

NPR’s Ina Jaffe took a look yesterday for Weekend Edition Sunday at the vote-by-mail election system in Oregon, and how the rules there make campaigning a unique experience.

NPR Jaffe Vote-By-Mail

A big critique of vote-by-mail, which has been echoed here by Norman J. Ornstein, is that the process negates the secret ballot. “We got rid of that big reform that guaranteed secrecy in the voting booth,” said Jim Moore, political science professor at Pacific University, “and got rid of the idea that no one can come between you and directly placing your ballot in the box — a sealed locked box.”

Listen to Jaffe’s piece here. My piece this week for NPR Sunday Soapbox, which was teased on Weekend Edition Sunday, was about how super delegates are shifting the election reform debate from our voting systems to our party system.

Why Tuesday? is a non-partisan, nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization founded in 2005 to find solutions to increase voter turnout and participation in elections.

Read More...

MAKE A TAX DEDUCTIBLE DONATION NOW!

$

Recent Comments

  • Mich-Kama: Thanks for sharing this, I really enjoyed it while I was reading and I’ll probably add it to my...
  • Shyna David: I personally think that some traditions should be followed. Inspite of the logical concerns of Voting on...
  • Todd: Mike (comment #4) “Do you really want everyone to vote? … Bottom line most people are not informed...
  • Ezzy: It means having the kids at school eat lunch and breakfast outside. Means all the regular school staff having a...
  • Ilan Ben Menachem: United States ranks near the bottom of all countries in the world in voter participation.