Bill would allow voting by mail

As the November 1999 election season comes to an end, legislators are working to increase voter turnout in future elections after the turnout upset Tuesday. The lack of citizen participation in government affairs has prompted Sen. Alma Wheeler-Smith (D-Salem Twp.) to introduce legislation, SB 41, that would allow voting by mail in state and local elections.

Voter turnout was at its worst this year in Ann Arbor, with less than 12 percent of the Ann Arbor population voting in the city council elections. Numbers were not much different in other communities across the state, with voter turnout in Lansing reaching only 14 percent.

"We need to be making the election process and access to the ballot more convenient," Smith said.

"By delivering ballots to people ... it does make it easier and usually does increase voter turnout," said Michael Traugott, chair of the University's communications studies department.

Absentee ballots currently are available to voters with certain circumstances - illness, voters more than 60 years old or those out of town on election day.

But "vote-by-mail is a universal absentee ballot," Smith said. The bill would allow anyone who wanted one to have an absentee ballot.

A vote-by-mail system already is in use in Oregon and has increased voter turnout by about six percent, Traugott said, adding that the increase was not partisan.

Traugott said the study of the effects of vote-by-mail was conducted in Oregon during a December 1995 and January 1996 special primary election to replace Sen. Robert Packwood. (R-Oregon).

This was the first statewide election for a partisan race conducted with the possibility of voting by mail.

The study found that although voter turnout in Oregon did increase, it did not bring any new voters into the electorate. The increase in turnout was among already registered voters who for some reason would not have gone to the polls on election day, the study concluded.

But not all Republicans are opposed to the vote-by-mail system. In 1997, a similar bill was introduced by Sen. Loren Bennett (R- Canton), SB 7, that would have made voting by mail possible, said Scott Ray, a legislative aid to the senator. But because Bennett has not yet seen the specific provisions of Smith's bill, Ray said he was unable to comment on SB 41.

Other Republicans expressed support for a bill that would increase voter turnout.

"Sen. Hammerstrom would do anything to increase voter turnout," said Amy Zaagman, Hammerstrom's chief of staff. But it is "very important that we have one voter file in the state" to reduce voter fraud, she added.

But Smith said that she does not think the state legislature will take up the bill because the state congress is Republican-controlled. "Their concern with vote-by-mail is that it increases the number of Democratic turnout," she said.

This is not the first time voter turnout has been an issue among legislators.

Last year, Michigan Gov. John Engler signed SB 306, which requires citizens to vote in the location of their permanent address. This bill would allow voters to send in their absentee ballots.

But although vote by mail would make it easier for students to vote, the two bills, SB 41 and SB 306, have no relationship to each other, Smith said.

11-05-99