At their June 13 meeting, the Board of Supervisors voted on a proposal to make voting easier and less costly in Orange County.
Unfortunately, they unanimously voted “No.”
The proposal was a thoroughly researched plan by Orange County Registrar of Voters, Neal Kelley. It would have provided automatic mail ballots to registered voters and replaced 1,100 polling locations with 150 computerized Voter Centers, plus 90 locked County ballot drop-off boxes.
At their June 13 meeting, the Board of Supervisors voted on a proposal to make voting easier and less costly in Orange County.
Unfortunately, they unanimously voted “No.”
The proposal was a thoroughly researched plan by Orange County Registrar of Voters, Neal Kelley. It would have provided automatic mail ballots to registered voters and replaced 1,100 polling locations with 150 computerized Voter Centers, plus 90 locked County ballot drop-off boxes.
The proposal took advantage of a 2016 State law, the Voter’s Choice Act, SB 450, which permits 14 California Counties, including Orange, to adopt the new system.
Sacramento County was the first to adopt the system when its Board of Supervisors voted June 6 to adopt the new all-mail-ballot election model.
The new voting model involved the delivering of mail ballots to all registered voters 28 days before Election Day. Currently, over 60 percent of OC voters already receive a mail ballot.
Each voter would then have the option of mailing in their ballot, voting at one of the new computerized Voter Centers, or dropping their mail ballot off at a County locked ballot drop-off box.
The 150 computerized Voting Centers would have been open for 10 days prior to Election Day, as well as Election Day, allowing any County voter the convenience of casting an early ballot.
Voting Centers would not only have permitted any voter to cast their ballot in person, but also they could check their registration and voter status, get a replacement ballot, drop off their mail ballot and obtain general voter assistance.
Voting Centers would have been open longer hours, from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. for four to 10 days prior to Election Day, including weekends. This would have greatly enhanced the ability of busy workers to get the chance to vote.
According to Registrar of Voters Kelley, the new system would have saved the County anywhere from $10 to $20 million in taxpayer funds over the cost of maintaining the current system of voting.
Three western states have already adopted all-mail elections for all of their elections: Oregon (2000), Washington (2011) and Colorado (2013). Another 19 states have established all-mail elections for various types of elections: special elections, local referenda, special district elections or where a jurisdiction so chooses.
So, why did all five members of the Board of Supervisors vote “no” to enhanced voting opportunities for OC voters? You will have to ask them, as they made no comments at their June 13 meeting, per the OC Register.
Joel Block is a retired attorney and freelance writer living in Rossmoor.
This column appeared in the June 28, 2017 print edition of the News Enterprise.