All California Voters To Receive Vote-By-Mail Ballot

Andrew Donaldson

Born and raised in West Virginia, Andrew has since lived and traveled around the world several times over. Though frequently writing about politics out of a sense of duty and love of country, most of the time he would prefer discussions on history, culture, occasionally nerding on aviation, and his amateur foodie tendencies. He can usually be found misspelling/misusing words on Twitter @four4thefire and his food writing website Yonder and Home. Andrew is the host of Heard Tell podcast.

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13 Responses

  1. Oscar Gordon says:

    GoodReport

  2. Philip H says:

    Elections have consequences.
    Thoughts and prayers to our conservative interlocutors.Report

  3. Jaybird says:

    This will make ballot initiatives even more fun! Let the games begin!Report

  4. Chip Daniels says:

    In addition, as I mentioned in the other thread, the Los Angeles DA, elected with the help of BLM is overturning 60,000 past marijuana convictions;

    Governor Newsom signed into law:

    A bill eliminating single family zoning and allowing greater density across the state;

    And the previously mentioned program to convert motels into permanent housing for the homeless;

    A bill authorizing counties to establish sheriff oversight programs;

    A bill to require a state prosecutor to investigate officer involved shootings;

    Among others.

    Now compare this agenda to that of Governor Abbot of Texas, which was entirely centered on culture war stuff- Guns, abortion, voter suppression, mask mandates.

    This is why I react so strongly whenever we get the BSDI stuff, because it is a baldfaced lie. One party is actively legislating and improving the lives of its constituents, while the other does nothing but endless grievance displays and performative wankery.Report

  5. Michael Cain says:

    Ah, good. Now I can accurately point out to certain friends on/from the East Coast, who believe that vote by mail is inherently inaccurate and full of fraud if only the child-like trusting Westerners were smart enough to look, that on a regional basis the 13-state West is now at least 90% vote by mail*.

    Their politics are otherwise sane, but they have this one blind spot.

    *Percentage of registered voters who receive mail ballots:
    CA, CO, HI, NV, OR, UT, WA — all registered voters.
    AZ — >80%
    MT — >75%
    NM — >65% (astounding in its own way since there’s no permanent list)
    WY — >30%Report

  6. Burt Likko says:

    100% vote by mail works just fine in Colorado, Hawaii, Oregon, Utah, and Washington. Republicans are still competitive (if somewhat behind the 8-ball these days but that’s their own damn fault) in Colorado, and clearly dominant in Utah. Vote by mail is not a partisan thing.Report

    • Oscar Gordon in reply to Burt Likko says:

      Here’s what I’ve learned about VBM – it’s just as easy to lose your ballot in a pile of mail and forget to vote as it is to forgot to schedule the time to get your butt to the polls to vote on election day.

      Ergo, if you don’t care a lot about voting in a given election, VBM won’t magically change that. So it will only significantly increase voter turnout if one or more demographics were being actively discouraged from voting. And if that is the case in a given state and some political party is worried about it, then I got a teeny, tiny violin…Report

      • Jaybird in reply to Oscar Gordon says:

        I admit that I have gone into the voting booth once or twice without knowing about the various initiatives that are at the bottom of the ballot. The only thing I know about them are the various signs that say “VOTE YES ON 2B!” or “VOTE NO ON 2B!” (usually right next to each other).

        So I get in the booth and it’s about transfer of parkland or something and I have to figure out whether it’s a good or bad idea on the fly before I vote no on it.

        But it never felt like “homework” when I was doing that.

        When I get my ballot in the mail, open it up, and start reading stuff? Ugh. That feels like homework.Report

      • Statistically, vote by mail pretty consistently increases turnout by a small amount. The increase is largely uniform across the spectrum — young people don’t suddenly start voting in droves. Colorado has surveyed non-voters and the most common reason given is “I forgot.”

        Non-scientific, but my gut feeling is that a ballot initiative that people feel strongly about drives turnout more than anything else. People seem to like voting on a single policy more than they like voting on politicians.Report

    • Detailed statistics suggest vote by mail helped Cory Gardner (R) win the Colorado Senate seat in 2014. Not as much as Udall’s absolutely hapless campaign in the Front Range suburbs, but still.

      Nevada has also made the vote by mail system they used in 2020 permanent. They had no problems of any significance then.Report