California GOPer election consultants, smarting from losing seven Congressional seats in the state to energized Democrats, think the Dems have figured this out.
This account leaves me with all sorts of questions. In California, voters still have to ask, opt in, to vote by mail. Does this tactic require a first contact to encourage the infrequent voter to do that first step? Then, do county registrars post lists of who has been sent a vote-by-mail ballot so campaigns can track down who hasn't cast that mail ballot? (Probably yes, but how fast and how accurately may be an issue.) Then can canvassers achieve contact with the target voter in order to encourage her to mark her ballot? Can that voter find the ballot that turned up along with her junk mail? Will the voter be willing to turn over her ballot to some campaign to mail? (Probably quite a few will; the willingness of people to do this even in Nevada where vote-by-mail is rare surprises me.)Some Republicans have cast a skeptical eye on Democrats’ use of “ballot harvesting” to boost their support. The idea’s backers say it’s just one of several steps California has taken to enable more people to vote.
Few people noticed when Gov. Jerry Brown signed the changes in AB1921 into law two years ago. In the past, California allowed only relatives or people living in the same household to drop off mail ballots for another voter. The new law allowed anyone, even a paid political campaign worker, to collect and return ballots — “harvesting” them, in political slang.
... For Democrats, the ballot harvesting was all part of a greater effort to get out the vote from their supporters, particularly from occasional voters.
“We beat Republicans on the ground, fair and square,” said Katie Merrill, a Democratic consultant deeply involved in November campaigns. “Many of the field plans included (ballot harvesting) as an option to deliver voters or their ballots” to the polls.
Republicans seem to attribute the deluge of late vote-by-mail ballots that turned many contests toward Dems to campaigns turning in "harvested" ballots late. But why would campaigns hold these until the last minute? It would seem to make more sense to just get them in as they were collected -- to drop them off at the country registrar office if that would be the only way to turn them in.
Any readers who were active in California campaigns -- can you comment on whether you collected mail ballots or were at least were instructed to try to do so? How did the mechanics work?
I walked for Campo-Najjar in CA50 the Sunday before the election and on election day, and the campaign didn't give me any information or ask me to collect absentee/mail ballots.
ReplyDeleteTo answer your question about the registrars, yes they provide updates with info about who's ballot has been received so you can stop bugging them and focus on those with ballots still out. (In fact that can be a talking point for why people should hurry up and send their ballot in, then people will stop calling and door knocking them). Those updates get uploaded to NGP VAN and presumably to PDI and other list vendors.
And it does require first contact, but now anyone, not just disabled or elderly voters, can become a PERMANENT absentee voter. In SD & Imperial County orgs including the ACLU sent mail with tear-off postcards to apply as a PAV. BTW, the poli sci lit is mixed about whether absentee voting increases turnout or not, although ground campaigns are probably one of the important variables. It is helping that now your ballot just has to be postmarked, rather than receive by election day, although that is certainly STILL drawing out counting the votes.
ReplyDeletePeter: It's long been the practice, when phone banks used to be useful, to target known v-b-mail voters just as their ballots were arriving. Guess "ballot harvesting" is just an extension of this -- though requiring a massive canvasser/volunteer base to execute. It all still seems to go back to that.
ReplyDeleteAs a voter, I would only give my ballot to someone I knew, trusted, or had some authenticated documentation to present to me insuring my ballot would be submitted. I appreciate the need for more people to vote, but whatever the system — early voting deadlines should be required for those submitting ballots other than at voting booth Election Day. All votes should be submitted by Election Day. None of these drug out submissions. Seems to me all these loose submissions leave the system open for violation. There are enough delays with checking provisional ballots, then recounts. Also, Whatever Florida is doing they seem to be a mess, likely jeopardizing election results.
ReplyDeleteDoesn't California have a law as to who can legally drop off a ballot? In many places only a caregiver or family member can do it.
ReplyDeleteMy mom was legally blind and she got her ballots by mail and took care of them herself.
IF a political party begins to go door to door to pick up ballots, the whole thing is rife with possible fraud or even intimidation (this could go two ways).
States should have the envelopes though not need postage for some who might find that hard to get. Oregon is all vote by mail and it worked fine. You had to though mail to get there ahead of Tuesday or drop in a box that day-- no weeks to get it counted.
Joared: I completely agree with you that I'd never give my ballot to someone to mail. I was frankly astonished when this happened recently during the campaign in Nevada. We were not asking anyone we contacted at the doors for their ballot -- but a very few voters with whom canvassers had conversations asked the canvassers to mail it for them. (Nevada is not a big vote-by-mail state, only a very few people had mail-in ballots anyway.) For infrequent voters, the conversation itself may have been a confidence builder.
ReplyDeleteThe thing is -- this is legal in California under current law. Our slowness here is not so much due to mail ballots as to the mass signature verification that has to happen after the ballots arrive. Apparently most registrars are both swamped and careful.
Rain: I agree very much that ballots should be postage-paid by the issuing authorities. Apparently the Post Office has a practice of delivering ballots even if they have no stamps, but people don't know that.