Alicia's POV: Election Day Begins This Week...For Some of Us

This week, I have a love/hate relationship with my post office box.  While I’ll not looking forward to the mass amounts of political mail I (and many of us) will receive, I am looking forward to one big huge envelope: my Vote by Mail (VBM) ballot.

When I signed up to do this in 2002, I didn’t know many others that voted this way.  I was an early adopter. Nowadays, I believe it’s safe to say that nearly 50% of all Californians vote by mail.  According to an article by California Watch (http://californiawatch.org/dailyreport/cheaper-popular-mail-ballots-worry-critics-7479), ballots cast by mail made of 48% of the total votes in the 2010 gubernatorial race, which was up from 41.6% in the 2006 gubernatorial election.

When I chose to do this in 2002, it was mainly transportation related.  I worked banker’s hours at the time and used public transportation to and from work.  Unable to find an option to vote on Election Day that didn’t require me to get out of bed earlier than I desired or avoid standing in a long line after work, the vote by mail option sounded good to me.  Since then, my reasons for enjoying this method of voting have changed.

First, it helped me focus on the issues early on.  When I went to the polls beforehand, I treated the process like I was cramming for an exam the next day.  I’d tune out all of the ads and rhetoric, then would look at the voter’s guide the night before and circle which ones I thought I should vote for.  Somehow, having my ballot earlier helped me go about my decision making differently.  I started to pay attention to the write-ups and rebuttals before they ran repeatedly on television and in questionable sound bites.

Second, I began to appreciate candidates that campaigned early in the season. Early In the season, candidates tend to be a bit more accessible. Not too many people are paying attention in the summer months and there is a greater opportunity for meaningful conversation.  I’ve benefitted from the early access.  I don’t feel rushed by the candidate, and the candidate tends not to feel hurried as well.

The one drawback early on would be waiting for candidate forums and debates.  Even though you’d get your ballot ahead of time, you may have needed to sit on it for a while waiting for the first local forum to begin.  If you’re patient, then it’s not really a problem…but I’m not that patient.  So, I’d end up filling out half of my ballot, and waiting for these neighborhood forums to occur.  Thankfully, this has changed over the years.  You may have noticed for the upcoming election, there has been at least 6 or 7 local candidate forums sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce, KMVT15, League of Women Voters, and several neighborhood associations. 

It’s no accident that dates of these forums seemed to be piled on top of each other. Because of the high percentage of those who now vote by mail, various entities involved in the election process realized these interactions needed to be pushed up on the calendar, much to the dismay of exhausted candidates.  However, candidates understand this wisdom as well, which is why mailers from local candidates will arrive the same week as those ballots.

Yes, I am looking forward to start voting this week.  There are still a couple of ballot initiatives I want to get advice on before making the ballot.  A reminder for my fellow VBMers: if you don’t want to spend the extra postage to mail your ballot, you can drop it off in the City Clerk’s office at City Hall.