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Now
that we know the voting machines in the
Wake County precincts for the May 2
primary will cost at least $1.9 million,
we really need to turn our attention to
increasing the number of people who use
the machines.
As a state, North Carolina
has an abysmal voting record. More than
a million of our eligible adults are not
even registered. We rank in the bottom
third of all the states for voter
participation.
One way to change that would
be to overturn the present system of
voter registration and replace it with
same-day registration.
Now the state requires that
the registration books are closed for
the 25 days before elections. This was
supposedly imposed to give election
boards time to process registrations.
But we are in a much
different world now, with computers and
the internet, and election boards can
process registrations within hours.
Several other states use the system and
find it is secure and convenient – and
that the participation in elections has
increased.
There is a bill in the state
House of Representatives providing that
people with proper identification could
register and vote on the same day up to
four days before an election. It needs
to pass.
We groan when we hear that
only 13 percent of voters went to the
polls for an election. If you are part
of the 13 percent, you can be secretly
very pleased because your voice, your
vote, has much more weight than most of
your neighbors. You can truly say you
elected someone.
That is very elitist – and
if there were a law saying only a select
13 percent of the population could vote,
we might see another American
revolution. But laws that restrict and
repress registration and voting help
impose that elitist tradition.
I believe it is time North
Carolina looked at the experience in
Oregon, where voters in 1998
overwhelmingly approved a measure to
allow voting by mail. Registration is
still somewhat restricted – the books
close 21 days before the election – but
it can be done by mail also.
Washington state and North
Dakota have also held vote-by-mail
elections.
One of the startling results
has been a voter turnout, if you can
call it that, of 87 percent in one year.
That is pretty impressive.
The other impressive
statistic is that vote-by-mail cuts the
cost of an election by more than half.
Cheaper, easier, attracts
more people, has impressive security
safeguards – there is no “tombstone”
voting in Oregon because the ballots are
not forwarded – why not replicate the
Oregon experience here?
(Remember that April 17
is the last day you can register if you
want to vote in the May 2 primary.) |
