Let me bring this back to a specific Minneapolis/Hennepin County issue. Who on the city council is interested in sponsoring a resolution stating the city's desire to allow voting by mail in the 2005 city council/mayoral election?
Who in the Minneapolis delegation would like to author legislation in Senate and help find some Republican House members from Hennepin County to lead the way in that chamber? My sense is that you would need to allow any city in our county to experiment in 2005 to make this happen politically. This should not be about one party pushing a more accessible voting system because they think it might change the outcome of elections. We may be content in Minnesota with the highest turn-out among the states, but that is like feeling good about yourself because you are on the tip of the Titanic last to be submerged in the icy waters. Ultimately, to me our representative institutions don't have the mandate and legitimacy they require to effectively govern when fewer than half of eligible citizens vote in any election. Imagine if a 40 or 50 percent turn out was required to have a valid election ... how would our local government change what they do to engage citizens so that they can keep functioning after an election? I am suggesting that type of mentality and not such a requirement. A few points: 1. Should a local candidate die or be removed from the ballot, the voter would have the option of going to the polls on election day. This currently causes any absentee ballots sent in earlier to be destroyed. Our current system deals with this situation. 2. The integrity of the mail-in-voting process must be protected and notice about current penalties for fraud listed prominently. The key behavior to limit remain attempts by anyone to watch/control their spouse/companion/worker/etc. as they fill out their secret ballot. This does not seem to be a large problem under our current system, but it must be monitored more closely. 3. Oregon has an all vote by mail system. I am not suggesting an all vote by mail system. Here is a key article by their Election Director, John Lindback: http://registerguard.com/news/2002/10/27/ed.col.lindback.1027.html Note the emphasis on convenience. Voting in person has a certain civic value for many, but that does not mean we should deny others the freedom of accessible voting. Forced collective action is not the American way even if warms our hearts to stand in line together as we do our civic duty. 4. Why don't people vote? According to the Census survey, in 2000: http://www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/voting.html Bad weather 0.6 Transportation problems 2.4 Inconvenient 2.6 Forgot 4.0 Registration problems 6.9 Refused, don't know 7.5 Didn't like candidates 7.7 Other reason 10.2 Out of town 10.2 Not interested 12.2 Illness or emergency 14.8 Too busy 20.9 More detail http://www.census.gov/population/socdemo/voting/p20-542/tab12.txt Including the fact that transportation plays a much higher role for African-Americans: Transportation problems White - 1.9 Black - 5.5 5. Accessible voting can raise turn-out: http://www.elections.ca/loi/tur/tuh/TurnoutHigher.pdf "More specifically, all other things being equal, turnout is about 10 percent higher in countries where it is possible to vote by mail, in advance or by proxy, than in countries where none of these options are available." 6. A few more links: http://www.idea.int/vt/analysis/Postal_Voting_Internet_Voting.cfm http://www.canadapost.ca/business/offerings/vote_by_mail/can/ So to keep this focused on Minneapolis/Hennepin County ... if anyone would like to help push/develop a resolution for the City Council or initiate state legislation to allow this activity, please drop me a note <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. I think Minneapolis should consider itself a leader and put some issues before the legislature that don't cost a lot but show some creative thinking about the future of our democracy and demonstrate ways to bring people together to face the difficult public challenges we face. Cheers, Steven Clift [EMAIL PROTECTED] Carag Resident REMINDERS: 1. Think a member has violated the rules? Email the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
