Parties unsure of all mail voting

Commission to decide whether to hold public hearing

GRANT COUNTY — A proposal to conduct the majority of Grant County's future elections by mail doesn't appear to have the vote of the two major political parties.

Grant County Auditor Bill Varney proposed a plan to the Grant County Commissioners earlier this week, suggesting the county move to an all mail election system. The plan has picked up steam in other Washington state counties in recent months, leading several county commissions to pass resolutions in support of the plan.

Such a decision has not been made in Grant County, and the commission plans to deliberate Tuesday on whether or not to hold a public hearing on the issue. If the September primary were to be held under the all mail proposal, Varney said the county must approve a resolution by June 20, or 90 days prior to the election.

The chairs of the two major political parties in Grant County, however, have concerns the proposal could increase the potential for voter fraud. Varney told the commission Tuesday that voter fraud problems would still be an issue even if the county kept all its precincts open.

The county is mandated to obtain a voting machine for each precinct that allows voters with disabilities to vote in secret. Varney has proposed closing all precincts and having five centers in various parts of the county for people to drop off absentee ballots and vote using one of the machines. Grant County would have to pay for maintenance, replacement and transportation of the machines for those with disabilities, and Varney estimates a savings of approximately $168,000 by dropping the number of polling places from 33 to five.

The county currently operates both an absentee and polling place election, and Varney estimates the county could save $7,000 per election by switching to the all mail plan.

Grant County Republican Chair Tom Dent said he hasn't surveyed his party, but he doesn't approve of the idea.

"Personally, I don't think that all vote by mail is a good idea," Dent said, "it opens up for a possibility of fraud."

By voting in a polling place, Dent said it can be a little harder for a person to commit fraud by voting more than once. The idea of voting by mail is one Dent has seen come up at a state level as one of the ways to reform the election system. But said he hears from many people in the community who like to go vote, and while he is often forced to vote absentee, Dent said he too likes to go to the polling place on election day.

County Democratic Chair Ellie Webb agrees. Webb proposed the county move to all mail ballots in precincts with low voter turnouts, but she said election day can be a tradition for voters in more active precincts that could be a "tremendous" loss to communities.

She said the lack of precincts would take away exit polling, a tool she says tipped people off to voting problems in the last election. That tool, she said, won't be in place if the county switches to an all mail election.

"I think the electoral process needs to stay open to the public and transparent," she said.