Don’t Allow Most Voting Until You See the Whites of Their Eyes — and a Photo ID

(note this article is revised form the original post)

Pushing Early Voting is Generally Bad but Vote By Mail the Worst

The general promotion of early voting, particularly absentee vote by mail, has become a matter of course for Republican operatives. It has been intermittently pushed to various degrees and focus by the Republican Party of Iowa (RPI) and incessantly by statewide candidate campaigns as their  “contribution” to the Republican effort.

This commentary takes the polemic position that the general promotion of absentee voting by mail  as part of the generically referred to “early voting”  is wasteful, unseemly and helps Democrats perpetuate a regimen that invites fraud.  Furthermore, that general promotion of very early voting in person at satellite and county auditor’s offices, while preferable to vote by mail,  unfortunately contributes to a trajectory of condensing the plebiscite to a new unofficial election day, that is, the start of “early voting” which in Iowa is 45 days before the traditional first Tuesday of November.

While satellite voting is superior to vote by mail programs, because it has more elements to insure voting integrity,  wholesale early voting does not advance good government.  There are very limited aspects of get-out-the-vote programs by early voting that serve good government.  One is the traditional restriction of vote by mail to those eligible voters out of town for the entire 45 days preceding the election and the physically incapacitated. Satellite voting, where available, and week day early voting at county auditors’ offices can accommodate those not available to vote only on election day.  That availability should not be advocated as the replacement way to vote but rather as the back-up way to vote as close to the election as possible for those members of our mobile population unsure of their ability to vote on election day.

The conceivable positives to promoting “vote by mail” generally, as it is practiced in Scott County and elsewhere, are so marginal given the resource allocation of time and money and the existence of “early voting” alternatives that the effort should be shunned. It is inefficient, provides no measurable indication of positive attributes, as likely to be counter to Republican interests, and for the most part is unimaginative make work or account churning by consultants and operatives less concerned with cost savings.

The only aspect related to vote by mail that might have some merit (if it is not generally too late) is the so called “chaser” programs where a contact by mail, phone or in person to the voter is made when the periodic lists of those voters requesting absentee ballot by mail is released by the county auditor’s office.  Note this is not to advocate for promoting vote by mail but as regards those requesting mail ballots on their own accord.

Even that aspect is inefficiently handled by some counties when it is left to individual campaigns.  County Central Committees should take the project on for all candidates with a well constructed flyer motivating those requesting vote by mail ballots to vote for all Republicans.  As is too often the case the chaser program is left to the candidates to do using their individual campaign flyer. They of course are inclined to be self serving in their “chaser” response.  It is far more efficient for the County Party to assume the limited aspects of the task and try to make it benefit all Republican candidates.

Say One Thing . . . Hand Out Gold Stars for Doing the Opposite

County Republican Central Committees have had presentations from RPI over the years assuring Central Committees that the “focus” of the absentee or early voting effort would be on “soft Republicans” (those who do not vote every election) and Republican leaning independents.  The presentations, sometimes directly but at least tacitly, acknowledged that pursuing the exchange of “hard Republican” election day votes for mail ballots is indeed inefficient and makes no difference in the election outcome.  However the “gold stars” handed out for absentee voting programs is determined by showing increases in registered Republicans voting early, whatever their stripe.

The “gold star” results come from the low hanging fruit of hard Republicans who comply at a much higher rate than unsure soft Republicans. Keep in mind as well that those soft Republicans and Republican leaning independents who do comply may also be voting split ticket.  Does it really help the Republican ticket to expend resources to induce a person who by definition is not a reliable Republican to vote early who may be voting for example only half Republican but who actually is likely to vote anyway because it is a Presidential year?

In Practice — There is a  Generic Push to Vote Early, It is Not Differentiated and Wastes Time

Hard Republicans get the same number of mailings, robo calls and boiler room calls, rally inducements and media hype exhorting them to “Vote Early”  even after they have voted * whether from the Party directly or from candidates and interest groups. The latter element by law cannot be coordinated so the practical question becomes why should official Republican Party interests pursue it as much as they do?  Of course this begs the issue of the unseemliness of it when Republicans generally oppose universal vote by mail as in Oregon and rightly rail against Democrats for blocking reforms to insure voting integrity.

Other Points to Ponder Regarding the Push for Early Voting by Mail

The idea that we “bank” the votes is a two edged sword  — when focused on Soft Republicans and Republican leaning Republicans we “bank” split votes that other Republicans may have a chance at.

Hounding people to vote early is inefficient compared to resource allocations toward early and more thorough inoculation against Democrat lies.

Explaining early voting by mail is cumbersome as compared to “stop by the Auditor’s office or satellite site.”

We live in a mobile society. The facts are that in 45 days the vast majority of people who vote early can vote other than by mail.

We should shame the system of early voting to suppress the untoward manipulations Democrats use.

Propagates a playground for fraud — dead granny voting and “Old Homer won’t know the difference.”

Mitigates against the effect of our own efforts to obtain photo ID

Efforts to “Vote Early GOP”  short change ballot issues.

Enough evidence of this was seen in the 2010 general election in Scott County  as regards absentee voting trends regarding retention of  judges to convince this writer that “vote early” campaigns shortchange ballot issues.  That back-page vote (typical placement in an even numbered general election) was tied to the issue of traditional marriage. Both the issue of judicial overreach and protecting traditional marriage have been important parts of  Republican platforms.

This writer observed the feeding of approximately 3000 individual absentee ballots as a Republican representative in the process that year.  With Republican straight ticket and Republican governor votes as the marker, votes against retention were noticeably less on the ballots I processed than the final results. Little media regarding the issue of why to vote against retention had hit the airwaves on this important matter to so many Republicans and no-party voters. Pushing early voting unquestionably inhibited the retention debate from being adequately heard, indeed even the awareness for most voters that there was even a ballot issue.  In my judgment this was to the detriment of rank and file Republican interests due to the state and local Party’s lack of attention to the matter, however unintentional, in its push for “early voting.”

Other Readings That Call into Question the Push for “Vote by Mail” or Early Voting in General:

MIT Study says “Abolish on-demand absentee voting”

First, restrict or abolish on-demand absentee voting in favor of in-person early voting. The convenience that on-demand absentees produces is bought at a significant cost to the real and perceived integrity of the voting process. On the face of it, early voting can provide nearly equal convenience with significantly greater controls against fraud and coercion. Traditional absentee procedures for cause are still valuable for the limited situations they were originally intended for. States should return to those practices.

What’s Wrong With Voting By Mail or Absentee Ballot

Vote-By Mail systems eliminate “Election Day” and replace it with “Election Month,” thereby greatly increasing the costs campaigns must spend on GOTV (Get-Out the Vote) efforts.The cost of competing in a Vote-By Mail system, as a candidate, is increased due to GOTV efforts taking 1 month, rather than the the weekend before the Tuesday vote. So 3 day GOTV efforts are affectively (sic) replaced with a 30 day GOTV effort.As costs increase, only established and well-funded campaigns can maintain GOTV efforts for weeks on end. Smaller campaigns without deep pockets will find it even harder to compete in Vote-By Mail systems.

Election Month greatly changes the “timing” of the campaign calendar, but organizations that interact with the political calendar have been slow to react to this phenomenon here in Washington State. Traditional low-cost mass media methods of reaching voters can be somewhat negated as not all the free mass media type of information has has time to reach the voters. . . . 

News cycles must start earlier, and local precinct level candidates forums are not used to the time shift, so often candidate forums are taking place too late for candidates to make their case for running for office directly to the people. This drives up the cost of mass media spending, and makes it harder for new candidates without established donors to compete.

Vote-By Mail systems alter the time-table of the election cycle. The change to Vote-By Mail means many voters will vote before all the information has been presented by candidates, civic institutions are forced then to either adjust their calendars, or as is currently the case, they don’t change there forum dates, rather fewer voters have a chance to see candidates in person at these forums.

Also see:  Vote Fraud Deniers

* The time to obtain VBM requests or fulfillment data from the Auditor’s office or other sources even if it were available is or would be such that the time delays and costs to delete as opposed to “just one more contact” mitigate against deleting. As a result no one experiences  a let up in “encouraging” them to vote early  . . . they will continue to be hounded to “vote early by mail” through to the first Tuesday in November.

Important Note: We would be pleased to publish contrary rationals in support of general promotion of vote by mail by Republicans.  Lengthier responses should be sent to our e-mail address [email protected].

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