Florida Democratic Representatives Pan Vote-by-Mail

The vote-by-mail proposal floated by the Florida Democratic Party as a possible do-over for the Jan 29th primary seems to have lost its luster. Florida's Democratic members of the House of Representatives unanimously opposed an early draft of the plan, citing logistical concerns as well as issues addressing security and voter fraud.

In a joint statement released earlier this week, they stated, "We are committed to working with the DNC, the Florida State Democratic party, our Democratic leaders in Florida, and our two candidates to reach an expedited solution that ensures our 210 delegates are seated.

"Our House delegation is opposed to a mail-in campaign or any redo of any kind."

Karen Thurman, the Chair of the Florida Democratic Party, submitted a new plan (PDF) to those involved on Wednesday of this week. In an attempt to address the concerns over vote-by-mail, the plan includes over fifty regional election offices, where people could vote in person, to ensure that disadvantaged communities have the opportunity to participate.

All voting (in person or by mail) must be done by June 3rd according to the Thurman's proposal. Ballots would be in English, Spanish, and Creole, and would be mailed to voters 24 days before the election. The regional election offices would open at least 14 days before the election, allowing people to vote in person if needed, and also drop off completed ballots.

Even with the inclusion of the regional election offices, Thurman's new proposal has met with resistance.

"All of our members believe a vote-by-mail program doesn't make any sense," stated Congressman Ron Klein on Thursday. Any plan that relies so heavily on vote-by-mail is an untried and untested election method in Florida.

According to Congressman Robert Wexler's press secretary Josh Rogin, all of the Democratic Representatives of Florida are "uniformly against the proposal." It would be too difficult to implement an entirely new election format in the time remaining in the primary calendar- a scant three months.

For contrast, Oregon has been using various vote-by-mail systems in their elections for over twenty-five years.

"When they first started talking about a vote-by-mail election, we were definitely excited," said Scott Moore, Chief of Communications for Oregon's Secretary of State. There's reason to be proud of the state's vote-by-mail system: besides increasing voter participation, Oregon has found that an election done entirely by vote-by-mail with no poll workers or polling places can be as much as a third cheaper.

Moore emphasized that the state did not get to this stage overnight. It was first tested for use in local elections in 1981, and it wasn't until 1993, over ten years later, that vote-by-mail was used in statewide elections. The state continued to expand its use in increments, and in 2000, Oregon held their first presidential election, with over 79% turnout.

With decades to address security, outreach, and logistics, Oregon has developed a detailed system. To authenticate ballots, voters sign the back of their envelopes that the ballots are returned in. State workers then electronically check these signatures against signatures on voter registration cards. Other methods to ensure turnout were in place in case a voter moved or changed their address.

If the Florida Democratic Party were to re-do the primary privately, using contractors and not the Florida Division of Elections, access to the voter registrations or other ways of authenticating ballots would be difficult. While Thurman's proposal includes coordinating signature verification with the Secretary of State, and stressed "the Governor's office has assured support in this effort," there is still much room for error.

"If something went wrong because of the way the election has been administered, it'd be a shame if vote-by-mail is blamed," said Moore.

Regardless of support for Obama or Clinton, the Florida Democratic Representatives are against the idea and feel that there is not enough time to properly implement any elections with a vote-by-mail component. It's like "trying to build the Brooklyn Bridge in a week- you just can't pull it off," Rogin explained.

Not to mention, according to Rogin, that fifteen Florida counties have gotten rid of their electronic voting machines in anticipating of moving forward with optical scan technology. While this change will be ready in time for the August primaries the state has schedule, it certainly won't be complete by mid-May or June. This would certainly hamper any attempts to set up regional election offices if this technology was supposed to be used.

In addition to these roadblocks, some news outlets have raised concerns that a vote-by-mail election would be prohibited by Florida law. Sterling Ivey, a spokesman for the Florida Division of Elections, said that normally, that would be true.

"Mail ballot elections are not legal if conducted by the state, but they [the Florida Democratic Party] can conduct their own election." Ivey went on to explain that the a privately-run election by the Florida Democrats wouldn't be subjected to Florida's election rules.

This would allow them to circumvent a rule specifying that vote-by-mail may not be used in any election "at which any candidate is nominated." That same rule makes it clear that vote-by-mail is intended for use in elections only covering single counties, cities, or school districts- not for statewide ballots. While circumventing this issue, the results of a privately-run election may be easier to dispute than one run by the state.

With no feasible election do-over, both the Clinton and Obama campaigns will most likely have to compromise on how to seat and distribute the Florida delegates.

"We're sending messages up the tree," Congressman Klein said, noting that both candidates are the ones who have to be happy with the solution.

When asked, Klein admitted that this discussion "could include reaching out to Mr. Edwards," who won 14% of the vote. Since Edwards has suspended his campaign and has not entirely dropped out of the race, his delegates (or those owed him) are technically still bound to him.

On the Jan 29th primary, Sen. Clinton received 50% of the vote, Sen. Obama 33%, and Sen. Edwards, who was still in the race, 14%. According to The Green Papers, a nonpartisan site following the primaries, that would breakdown roughly as 113 delegates for Sen. Clinton, 71 for Sen. Obama, and 13 for Sen. Edwards.

This gives us a total of 211 pledged delegates and doesn't address Florida's 25 superdelegates, who aren't elected. It is uncertain how a compromise may change the allotment of pledged delegates or what may happen to those who would be pledged to Sen. Edwards.

Comments

[CTtransplant]

Why not use the same process Oregon uses for mail in voting? Look to the Oregon Democrats to lend a hand...it would make sense and solve the issue.