19 March 2020 — 0700 mdt

Montana must move to all mail ballot elections
for the duration of the coronavirus emergency

Voting by mail impersonalizes elections. It robs voters of the sense of community they experience at the polls. In the absence of our friends and neighbors, whose presence reminds us our votes affect everyone, it’s easier to cast mean-spirited, selfish votes.

That why, beginning in 1968, I’ve always voted in person at my local poll on election day.

But in 2020, and for as long as the emergency last, I’ll be voting by mail. Self-preservation is one factor. Wuhan Fever is especially dangerous to someone my age with my infirmities. Civic responsibility is the other factor. I have no right to do things that might increase the risk to someone else if I have a less risky alternative.

That’s why in late February I Tweeted that Montana should switch to mail ballots on a temporary basis. A small, but bipartisan, group of candidates also recommends going to a mail ballot, although some would make it a county option instead of a statewide mandate.

How long will the emergency last? Until a vaccine is developed and enough of the population is vaccinated to produce herd immunity. That may take two years, during which repeated waves of Wuhan Fever will ravage the nation.

Options

One way to conduct the primary by mail ballot is to persuade everyone to sign-up for an absentee ballot. Not everyone would, of course, the polls would remain open, and the virus could be spread in the close quarters.

A better option is for the state to order the polls closed and that all registered voters be sent ballots with postage paid return envelopes. If the governor does not have the power to do that, he must call a one-day special legislative session to legislate the necessary powers. The legislators could line up on the yard lines on a football field to maintain social distancing and cast their ballots by smartphones.

The time to do this is now. The virus is loose in the land and multiplying exponentially.