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1. StringCheese
   Member Profile

   Requiring postage on all-mail balloting is the equivalent of a poll tax (though small). They had some wiggle room when they had convenient drop boxes throughout the city. Not any more.

   Discuss!

   Posted 1 year ago #         

2. JanS
   Member Profile

   

   I was just thinking that I needed to go get stamps. I have always voted with absentee ballots as long as I can remember, never thought about the stamp I was using. Hmmm....

   Posted 1 year ago #         

3. StringCheese
   Member Profile

   I have too. But then, it was my choice. If it is not a choice -- and be honest, going to Tukwila or downtown is not akin to walking to your neighborhood polling station -- it is a poll tax.

   Posted 1 year ago #         

4. Admiral935
   Member Profile

   paying the gov't to deliver mail to the gov't? Eh, actually I don't mind the single First Class stamp they call for. But, how does one really know if their vote was delivered? The envelope seems like oversize\overweight usually requiring higher postage that the single FC stamp. I used to drive down the 35th drop box, is that no longer there? Heck, nevermind, I have to (want to) take the Metro bus downtown next week anyway.

   Posted 1 year ago #         

5. redblack
   Member Profile

   

   it really should be a "no postage necessary if mailed within king county" situation. or if the ballot is mailed by armed forces personnel.

   but, oh noes!!

   that would be a publicly-financed election!

   kind of.

   damned socialism. :)

   Posted 1 year ago #         

6. FullTilt
   Member Profile

   

   You should google "Poll Tax" and see what comes up.

   What you are paying is a Lazy Fee. Instead of taking the time to drive it your self to Tukwilla, or where ever the closest polling drop box is, you are paying the cost of a stamp to have another person walk it over there for you. It is the same type of socialism that happens when your house is on fire, and some commie pinko in a red truck comes and puts it out.

   Posted 1 year ago #         

7. JanS
   Member Profile

   

   Full tilt...for those of us without a car, it makes it a bit more difficult to deliver in person when there's no local drop box. I avoid downtown like the plague.

   If you mail early enough, there's a website (which escapes me right now) where you can check the status of your ballot...if it's been received, if it's been counted, etc. Maybe c@tlbob will come up with the link to it. I happen to know that he has first hand knowledge of those kinds of things :)

   Posted 1 year ago #         

8. WSB
   Member Profile

   

   it's linked on the king county elections home page.

   Posted 1 year ago #         

9. charlabob
   Member Profile

   

   https://info.kingcounty.gov/elections/mailballottracking.aspx

   Posted 1 year ago #         

10. charlabob
    Member Profile

    

    Self-censored :-)

    Posted 1 year ago #         

11. c@lbob
    Member Profile

    

    The King County admin building at 500 4th Ave is probably the most accessible drop box location for us West Seattle shut-ins, certainly if you're taking a bus it is, but the rest of the county has regained 9 of the 11 drop boxes lost to budget cuts earlier this year.

    http://www.kingcounty.gov/elections/voting/ballotdropboxes.aspx

    Posted 1 year ago #         

12. c@lbob
    Member Profile

    

    Elections officials throughout the state are working to implement on-line voting. Think of the discussion that will kick-off!

    Posted 1 year ago #         

13. JoB
    Member Profile

    Lol..
    A lazy tax.
    I confess that I pay that one regularly though I prefer to call it a convenience tax.
    I like the idea of online voting but would be concerned about anonymity once logged on.

    Posted 1 year ago #         

14. JanS
    Member Profile

    

    lol..like nothing can go wrong with online voting EVAR !!!

    Posted 1 year ago #         

15. c@lbob
    Member Profile

    

    If memory serves, the closest drop box to me that we ever had was at 5405 Delridge Way SW, a 6.6 mile round-trip. Transit would be OOQ for me, so it would be car or taxi to drop a ballot off there. At the IRS business rate for car mileage, that would be $3.30, even if you use only the charitable rate of .14 per mile, you're talking about 92 cents. The taxi meter starts at $5.00, doesn't it?

    Transit isn't really out of the question - 2 buses, there and back - doesn't cost me anything, but isn't the fare $1.75 for those without a employer paid transit pass?

    Want me to walk? Even in my fitness days that would be 1.5 hours, no gazelle I. Nowadays, I'd have to stop off for refreshment, might take me all day!

    I think the USPS is a bargain.

    Posted 1 year ago #         

16. StringCheese
    Member Profile

    @15
    Aha! You have made my point brilliantly (though you probably weren't trying to).

    So, casting a vote in a "free and fair" election will cost you:

    to mail it - $0.44
    gas, if you drive it - $1+
    no transportation? $1.75 to bus it
    gonna walk to downtown? besides taking your life into your hands, prepare to take a day off from work = $

    KC should do what many non-profits do, offer free postage but request that you put a stamp on it to help offset the cost of mailing. It should still be far cheaper than running a hundred polling stations.

    And, how is a drop box (like the one that used to be on Delridge) cost anything over paying one or two people in a van to collect the ballots from all of the drop boxes on election night?

    It's not about what's cheaper. It's about the fact that casting your ballot should be free.

    @6, if drop boxes were available within a reasonable and safe walking distance (3 miles or so), I would agree with you that mailing it would be a "convenience". However, that is not how things currently stand. Simply, it will cost you real money one way or another to vote. That is not how the system is supposed to work.

    Posted 1 year ago #         

17. c@lbob
    Member Profile

    

    Well, even if we were to return to polling places, it wouldn't be "free" for me, or for you to use one, which I never did. Unless you have the polling location in your house, you gotta go somewhere.

    I have always considered it more convenient, and less costly to vote by mail. Even when I lived in California and had to request an absentee ballot for every election.

    It should be pointed out that according to courts, and state and federal law; it is not a tax to require one to return their ballot.

    But, you should go to King County Council meetings. Lobby the supervisors and executive to pay for the postage on approximately 400,000 ballots that are typically returned. In these days of budget shortfalls, layoffs, reduced law enforcement, and the rest; they will, no doubt, be excited about putting up an additional $176,000 per county wide election.

    If they put it to a vote, I vote no.

    Posted 1 year ago #         

18. StringCheese
    Member Profile

    @17,
    Polling places were located in every neighborhood to ensure all voters had access, most often in local elementary schools. There was no charge to walk into your neighborhood school and vote, or as I often did, drop off my absentee ballot. No busses, no cabs, no 8 mile round-trip walk...

    Do I think the county should pay $176K+ on postage in these tough economic times? Absolutely not.

    However, I also do not feel that we should make it any more difficult for people to cast their ballot.

    Simply putting ballot drop boxes in all of the old polling places would do the trick. Too lazy to walk a few blocks, you could still pay your postage and be done.

    An aside, I went to the Delridge drop box with my primary ballot only to find it closed. In the 2 minutes it took me to park, read the sign about it being closed, and return to my car, not fewer than 8 other people came up to do the same thing. At that rate, it is entirely possible that many hundreds of voters were impacted by the closing of that drop box. I ended up driving downtown, where there was no parking, and a drop box set well off the street requiring you to find a place to park to drop your ballot. It was mayhem. I saw many people simply drive off in frustration. Could they not have put a post office style box that you could drive up to?

    It simply seems that KC is not putting enough thought into the elections.

    Posted 1 year ago #         

19. WSB
    Member Profile

    

    I enterprised a short story several days ago about the fact that while they have restored nine of the dropped dropboxes citywide, none is in West Seattle/White Center. I contacted various responsible folks in government and nobody had an answer that made sense. Here's the story in case you missed it:
    http://westseattleblog.com/2010/10/west-seattle-election-countdown-more-drop-boxes-but-none-here

    Posted 1 year ago #         

20. c@lbob
    Member Profile

    

    Put a first-class stamp on the envelope and leave it under the mail box lid on the front porch for your mail carrier. What could be more convenient? That's what I do. I have a perfect voting record in Washington since I arrived here in early 2000. Same in California from 1992 to 2000 when I voted absentee there. Before that, less good.

    I think you underestimate the cost of those drop boxes. To keep them from overflowing, some need to be emptied more than once a day. It requires multiple employees and county cars dedicated to that task most of the day to keep 11 boxes emptied during the three weeks that ballots are being returned. Expanding the number of drop locations means increasing that cost.

    If you were taking your car for a spin to return your ballot, the place to go for an in-car dropoff of a ballot would have been in Tukwila, just North of the Boeing Museum of Flight. There's a left turn arrow if you arrive from the North on E. Marginal Way. Less traffic than downtown, easy access from I-5, Airport Way or 4th Avenue, and it has been open for every election since February 2009. When the Elections office goes back to Renton, that service will be offered there.

    This isn't secret information, BTW. With the exception of my patting myself on the back for voting on everything, the King County Elections website can tell you the rest of the story, with pictures.

    http://www.kingcounty.gov/elections

    Posted 1 year ago #         

21. c@lbob
    Member Profile

    

    Sorry, WSB, the boxes were restored COUNTY wide. Seattle isn't the only place King County serves. If we are looking for people who have more legitimate gripes about placement, I'd look to Duvall, Maple Valley, Black Diamond, Enumclaw.

    Posted 1 year ago #         

22. WSB
    Member Profile

    

    Don't know about that but did note that Ballard got a box and a couple miles away, the U District got a box.

    Posted 1 year ago #         

23. c@lbob
    Member Profile

    
    
    

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24. c@lbob
    Member Profile

    
    
    

    Posted 1 year ago #         

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