A reality based independent journal of observation & analysis, serving the Flathead Valley & Montana since 2006. © James Conner.
Montana Secretary of State Linda McCulloch faced up to reality yesterday, reports Charles Johnson at the Missoulian. Concluding there were not enough votes in the legislature to approve HB-70, which would have forced voters to vote by mail in all but school elections, she asked Rep. Geraldine Custer (R-Forsyth) to pull the bill, which was scheduled for a hearing tomorrow morning. (The legislature’s LAWS system hasn’t caught up with the decision to withdraw the bill.)
That’s good news.
There’s never been a good case for nailing shut the polls, condemning voters to mark their ballots in the isolation of their homes, and forcing them to cast their votes before the campaign is over and all the facts are available.
Support for a mandatory mail ballot primarily comes from two groups: (1) county clerks and recorders and Montana’s secretaries of state, who seek administrative efficiencies and less work on election day, and (2) Democrats and associated progressive organizations who want to bank votes lest some voters stay home on election day. Some support also comes from good government groups who allege, without providing supporting evidence, that mail ballots increase turnout in general elections.
HB-70 contains a carve-out for school elections, which are usually low turnout elections. Although mail ballots do not increase the turnout in general elections, they do in school and similar elections. So why the carve-out? To keep turnout low to increase the influence of teachers unions and local parent-teachers associations, two groups with high turnout rates in school elections.
McCulloch believes Montana will move to mandatory mail ballots in the future:
“Since we’re a rural state and getting to the polls is difficult and getting the number of election judges is difficult, I think it will come, for the same reasons that Washington, Oregon and Colorado did it,” McCulloch said.
This is face saving nonsense. Getting to the polls is not hard, and thanks to improved roads and automobiles, it’s easier than ever. Despite complaints that recruiting election judges is difficult, election judges are found.
Friends and neighbors assembling at public polls on Election Day to make decisions on their common future is not a defect of democracy. It’s a civic tradition that many of us enjoy and greatly value because it reminds us that we are all in this together, that our votes affect our fellow citizens as well as ourselves, and that we are a community.