WHY NOT VOTE BY MAIL?
Why Not Vote by Mail? It May Be Done Simply, Secretly, Honestly, and Inexpensively, and It Would Result in Giving Every Voter Equality of Opportunity to Express His Will on Election Day By EARL M....
...This large envelope is then sealed and mailed...
...It concerns not only a large and steadily increasing number of citizens who are entitled to vote but the state itself and the people as a whole who are interested in having every important political question determined by a majority of all who desire to vote...
...Take the county of Poor, for example...
...Put this second envelope into a still larger envelope (number 3...
...This cannot 5 fail to raise the standard of social efficiency, * * * Bring the Polls to the Absent Voter THE RAPID INCREASE of transportation facilities in recent years, the steadily growing tendency to conduct business upon a large scale and hence over wide areas, lower railway fares and better accommodations have greatly increased the amount of traveling done and the number of persons therefore who are necessarily absent from home on election day...
...In consequence, numerous plans have been suggested for absent voting or balloting by mail...
...He then places this envelope in the larger one (number 2) addressed to the clerk, and seals it Upon the upper left hand corner he writes: "This is my vote" and signs his name and address in full...
...This envelope has on it the clerk's name and address...
...To allow the American people to cast their ballots in the sanctity of their homes, surrounded by all that is good and sacred to them, would be simply another step higher in the selection of men and measures...
...Why is it necessary that some voters in our country to-day must walk ten or eleven miles to the polls and return, while others of us need only walk a block or two to do the same errand, namely, to drop a piece of paper in the ballot box expressing our wish or choice for certain men or measures...
...While securing to parsons necessarily absent from their homes on election day the right to cast their ballot, the law should be so drawn as to exclude the possbility of fraud or too great delay in counting the votes—From Message of Governor McGovern to the Wisconsin Legislature...
...Many who are away from home at the beginning of the week are required to travel hundreds of miles or submit to disfranchisement...
...The legislature of this state is now in session...
...With the good roads, the extension of the rural routes and the possible federal aid for the further improvements of roads, why can we not figure out some plan to help the farmer, the working man, the merchant and the laborer, to save time, worry and travel by voting by mail...
...This envelope shall have no marks upon it to distinguish it from any other envelopes that have ballots in them...
...The ballots thus cast by mail are counted with the other ballots...
...Let us not forget, however, that there are three stages of any reform—scorn and ridicule, argument, and finally adoption...
...It would, in thousands of cases, give good and intelligent citizens their first opportunity to take a direct part in their own government...
...Every state is showing a noticeable falling off of its vote...
...All of the votes received at the clerk's office in this way are kept in tact until election day...
...Let us meet this emergency...
...This to be done in the following way: First...
...Politicians are not expected to welcome the idea Of voting by mail...
...Every man would be allowed to cast his vote without wasting a day's time or traveling many miles...
...Do not forget that Uncle Sam, with his postal laws, would present a very formidable obstacle to corruption...
...If the plan Of voting by mail spreads among the states as the direct primary has spread, why then should pot the United States government pass a law permitting these envelopes to be franked...
...I believe with you, if you please, that a man's duty to his country ought to draw him to the polls, at whatever sacrifice, but it is not and should not be the plan of this country to impose hardships when better methods may be used to get the expression of the people's will...
...Then we have forgery laws and corrupt practices acts which, modified to cover every feature of voting by mail and made so strict as to discourage violation, would be a strong safeguard placed upon the sanctity of the ballot...
...Then the voter, alone in his own home or boarding place, and during any moment of leisure, opens his envelope and marks his ballot exactly as if he were doing so in a polling booth...
...In doing that he must state his rural free delivery box number, if any,—in short he must give his complete mailing address...
...For Equal Opportunity THIS MEASURE will undoubtedly meet with opposition...
...It is Voting by Mail...
...In the last primary election 1,300 votes were cast out of a possible 3,500 and a probable 4,000...
...It has an opportunity to put into effect another reform in the machinery of ejections that would be of tremendous profit to the people and to the state...
...Surely a man in his own home will show greater care in the marking of his ballot, will be less likely to make mistakes because of confusion, and haste, will be more apt to study the political problems with an increased sense of responsibility and will have the comfortable feeling that nothing may happen to deprive him of the opportunity to make his voice heard at election time...
...It would take away from them the last hope of manipulating or controlling the vote or influencing individual voters, It would give each voter a chance to weigh the problems before him and, quietly and alone, study out the way he wants to vote...
...Make Voting Easier IN THIS wonderful age of improvements nearly all business is done by mail...
...As soon as the polls are open, and before any one votes, these envelopes shall be checked over to see who has mailed his vote...
...I most respectfully recommend the enactment of similar legislation for Wisconsin...
...It May Be Done Simply, Secretly, Honestly, and Inexpensively, and It Would Result in Giving Every Voter Equality of Opportunity to Express His Will on Election Day By EARL M. LA PLANT WE HAVE often heard it said that Wisconsin is the "cradle of political reform...
...Let it not be said that a minority rules when it is easily possible to get the votes of a majority...
...It is estimated that 1,000,000 voters do not "come out" in elections, not because of lack of interest but simply because the earning of their daily bread makes it necessary for them to be absent from their voting precinct on election day...
...Upon this third envelope is the name of the voter and the address he gave the clerk when he registered...
...The weather had been rainy and unsettled for the greater part of a month or more...
...Traveling salesmen, railway employees, mail clerks, and many others are now compelled to choose between sacrificing two days of election week from their employment or losing their votes...
...A Great Public Benefit NEVER in our history has it been more apparent that we must adopt some method to lessen the difficulty of casting our ballots in the many elections...
...Five or ten minutes' time at the most would be required to cast his vote and that time could be minutes of leisure...
...This would be done either by appearing in person before the clerk of the city, village or town in which he lives, or by sending his registration to that clerk by mail...
...After the envelopes have been checked in this way, the outside envelope (number 2) shall be removed by the members of the election board and the small envelope containing the ballot (remember there are no marks of any kind upon it to Indicate whose vote it contains) shall be put in the regular ballot box like any other ballot...
...When the polls are closed, the envelope shall be removed and opened...
...Put this first envelope containing the ballot into a larger envelope (number 2...
...In this world of haste and hurry, when the loss of a minute seems to be the loss of a day, most Americans find it considerable of an effort to get to the polls...
...a great many others find it absolutely impossible...
...Here Is a Plan FOLLOWING is a plan by which voting may be carried on by mail simply, inexpensively, secretly and honestly: Give the voter thirty days' time to register his vote...
...All that remains to be done is to dron this envelope into the mail box to be taken to the clerk's office by Uncle Sam's carriers...
...Think what it would mean to the farmer, the laborer, the traveling man, the merchant, the seaman and the railroad man to be able to mail his vote...
...A word as to fraud...
...If, for any reason, an envelope should contain more than one vote or contain a ballot that was not properly signed by the ballot clerks before it was mailed to the voter, that ballot would be thrown out exactly as defective ballots are now disposed of at the present time...
...There was a reason for that and, we all know what it was...
...Second...
...And when we did get a good day—which happened to be election day—it was necessary to use that day spreading the grains and trying to dry the crops...
...Voting by mail would eliminate all of this...
...Third...
...Then, at a certain time before election—say two days—the clerk shall call the ballot clerks to his assistance and mail one ballot to each voter who has registered...
...He then places the ballot in the small envelope (number 1) upon which there are no identification marks of any kind, and seals it...
...In Australia, Tasmania, Kansas and elsewhere some of these plans have been put in operation and have been found to work well...
...Put the ballot (or ballots, as the case may be) in an ordinary sized envelope (number 1...
...The additional expense incurred by voting by mail would not materially increase the cost of conducting any election and it would place the voters of the state upon an exact equality in the casting of their ballots...
...This condition of affairs has become more marked each year and should not be permitted to continue...
Vol. 5 • February 1913 • No. 5
