Grant County mulling all-mail elections

Commissioners seek written comment on all mail balloting

EPHRATA — Grant County Commissioners are asking their constituents to submit written comment on the proposed change to an all-mail election system.

Those with concerns about the switch have until June 14 to send their ideas on to the commissioners. In order for the proposal to be considered in time for the September primary, the commissioners must approve a resolution by June 20.

Commissioners plan to announce their final decision June 14, after reviewing the comments from county residents. Recent legislation passed in Olympia gave the commissioners the authority to change the voting system. Additionally, the commissioners sent letters to the Republican and Democratic parties requesting feedback because they haven't heard from them directly on the subject yet.

"We're not taking this decision lightly," Grant County Commission Chair LeRoy Allison said.

So far, the response to the proposed change has been limited and evenly split. On Wednesday, the county had received one written response for and one against the plan.

Grant County Auditor Bill Varney is in favor of changing the system because he believes the new system would save money. Most voters in this county are already voting by mail.

"Currently 55 percent of the registered voters in Grant County have chosen to be permanent mail voters. In the 2003 general election, the 2004 primary election and the 2004 general election 68 percent to 72 percent of the people who actually voted did so by mail," Varney wrote in a proposal to the commissioners. "We currently administer two election processes, one by mail and one at the polls. It is more expensive to do both rather than one or the other."

Varney would like to reduce the county's 33 polling places to five. The Federal Help America Vote Act, effective Jan. 1, will require all voting places to have a machine that allows handicap voters to cast their votes in private. By moving to five polling places instead of the current 33, the proposal would reduce the cost of maintaining and transporting the new machines. The federal government pays for the machines initially, but the cost of upkeep will go to the county.

Those who are opposed to an all mail election cite the possibility for fraud as their main concern.

"Personally, I don't think that all vote by mail is a good idea, it opens up for a possibility of fraud," Grant County Republican Chair Tom Dent in a May interview.

Oregon has been conducting all mail elections since 1998 without evidence of voter fraud in that state, Varney said.