Register for absentee ballot California

(photo: Pacdog)

One person, one vote; that’s the fundamental principle of our democracy. Every vote counts. That is, unless you vote-by-mail. New research shows that absentee ballots cast by mail are twice as likely to go uncounted than those cast in person. More absentee ballots went uncounted in California than any other state in the last mid-term election.

In the years since the hanging chad-plagued 2000 presidental election, California has spent millions to replace outdated voting equipment with more secure and reliable machines in an attempt to minimize lost votes. During this same period, vote-by-mail balloting in California has surged. In fact, 51 percent of all ballots cast in last November’s election were absentee.

Tens of thousands of Californians are being disenfranchised by the vote-by-mail sytem. “In the last election, one percent of vote-by-mail ballots weren’t counted – that’s 68, 000, ” said California Voter Foundation President Kim Alexander. “I went into my county elections office two days after the election and asked to see the vote-by-mail ballots that weren’t being counted.” There were more than 3, 000 rejected vote-by-mail ballots in Sacramento County alone, an error rate of 1 percent. "It’s just astonishing, " said Alexander. "There were post office trays and trays of them.”

While vote-by-mail ballots are disqualified for a variety of reasons, on average nearly half of all rejections are attributed to late arrival. Under current law, vote-by-mail ballots must be received by 8:00 pm on Election Day to be counted in California.

But procrastinators aren’t the only voters being disenfranchised. Recent U.S. Post Office closures have delayed processing and delivery of absentee ballots, resulting in ballots cast even days in advance arriving late.

“Our domestic and military voters overseas who cast timely ballots should not be disenfranchised because of increasingly slow mail service, ” said Senator Lou Correa (D-Santa Ana), who authored legislation to address this problem.

Senate Bill 29 would allow vote-by-mail ballots postmarked by Election Day and received within three days after the polls closed to be counted. More than 10 other states have adopted a similar vote-by-mail deadline.