"And many, many of my friends have created tender moments with their sweethearts over the mail-in ballot."

Cripes.

I like voting by mail if it comes automatically. My Swiss ballot comes automatically, but I have to write to City Hall back in MA 6 weeks before any given election to get my American one which I find annoying. They know I live abroad, I haven't moved, why can't they just always send me my ballots? They make it kind of hard, because it has to be no more than six weeks before the election, but still enough time for it to get to me, be filled, and get back.

So it's good only if you don't have to remember to reapply every time there's an election, and if it comes automatically.

I think polling should be held at post office only, or via mail, and open from Oct 1 - Oct 31 and the media should nit be allowed to report on "up to the minute coverage" and any reporter who does is either exectuted for treason or forced to give up their poll worker source who would then be exectued for treason

I always wonder how many people change their votes to be on the 'winning' side.

I intensly dislike mail voting for a couple of reasons.
- I'm horrible with physical correspondence. If it requires me to show up I do it, if I can do it online I'll probably do it, otherwise all bets are off
- there's no way to validate who is voting. Being forced to identify yourself, in person, with photo ID guarantees no one else will vote in your place.
- mail is clumsy and can be easily intercepted or lost. You've never heard the story of the wife who impersonated her husband at the polling station, but the wife who ripped up her husband's mail ballot? Yes.
- it encourages low-information schlubs that they're just as involved as those who actually read the news. "I voted, sure. I voted against everything Jon Stewart mocked. I'm involved!"
- making voting 'easy' cheapens what voting is, committing political action to shape society and our future. If you can't manage to set aside time to get a picture ID, register ahead of time, and make it into your polling station between 0600 and 2000, I don't want you determining what my tax rate is. ( Absentee is different and should be the rare exception. )

Or how many people decide not to vote as it "obvious" the other guy is going to win anyway

I love the way that Oregon allowed me and my wife to vote even after I moved to Washington. The post office kindly forwarded my ballot to us. It was very convenient for us to vote in two states without going to a poll in either.

I live in WA and the mail-only option is a major sore spot for me. It's really, really important that I get as little mail as possible. This is because my mind is a whirlwind and my house and office are external reflections of it. I have missed several voting opportunities since they switched, and it really irks me. Now that I think about it, I have no idea where I put my ballot for this election. I'm sure I saw it sometime in the past few weeks.

Here in NJ we get sample ballots mailed to us ahead of the election. So, why doesn't everyone else do their "research" ahead of time, mark the sample ballot how they want to vote, then bring the ballot into the voting booth with them?

That's what I do and the poll workers are always "amazed" when they ask who I am and I show them my sample ballot. I mean, c'mon, this isn't rocket science, is it?

P.S. I live in a district that has a lot of immigrants who aren't citizens; yet, we share our polling place with 2 other districts. Every time, I go to vote, I have to excuse my self past everyone explaining that I'm not cutting line it is just that there is no line for my district.

"Now that we have worked on participation, we can create new rituals."

Yes, like being able to sell my vote to the highest bidder. Or voting Granny's ballot for her. So what if she's dead/is comatose/suffering from dementia? I got a ballot for her in the mail, it should be voted and sent back!

I'd hate to have no option other than voting by mail. Do you know how much mail is misdirected?

I regularly don't get mail that I know people sent me... or it gets here after a month when they sent it from across town.

My favorite was when I got an annoyed call from a relative wondering why I hadn't RSVPd to my cousin's wedding. Shocked, I replied that I had sent my RSVP with a long personal note three weeks earlier. It never got there.

One other major issue is parents voting for students. If the student is at college what prevents a parent from voting for them? Even if the child knows his/her parent submitted an illegal ballot, would they have their parent prosecuted?

The signatures are "validated" by people with a few hours of training but I have seen nothing on the effectiveness of this.

I don't like mail voting either, but the real problem is there are not enough people to man the polls anymore. They're not all League of Women Voters volunteers, at least not here. Those old ladies are dying off and young people don't volunteer.

Pollworkers are paid and they're harder and harder to recruit. It's only a day or two of work, with albeit an evening or two of paid training. And on election day you're stuck there for 14-15 hours. And if you're a political junkie like me, there's no way to watch the national returns.

The county tried to get high school and college kids interested but that flopped.

I tried it for a few years and decided my job ought to take precedence. Now my retired husband is doing it...Meanwhile county clerks are lobbying for mail voting.

Gee, with all the hubbub about Bush/Gore in Florida back in 2000, what happened to the military absentee ballots that went missing?

I live in Oregon and I like the convenience of mail-in voting. However, I physically take my ballot to the election office for my county (Clackamas) to turn in so it's not lost. I do not like that we have up to 45 days before the election to vote. I think it should be only a few days, like starting on Saturday and going through Tuesday, so like 4 days to make it easier on those whose work schedules make it difficult to go during poll hours on election day. I've never had the experience of a voting booth since the first election I was old enough to vote in was 2000. I'd go to the voting precinct if I needed to though. My elementary school growing up was a vote location so I remember witnessing everyone coming in to vote throughout the day. And it was convenient for parents who were dropping off kids.

This was covered in Dear Annie (I think?) today. A parent filled out voting forms and mailed them for her 2 incapacitated parents. I am firmly for ID voting in person only (certain exceptions like deployed military apply). Anyone who can't be bothered to do that certainly can't be bothered to educate themselves about the topics relevant to the election.

Ditto on the lost mail-it's really common. Things aren't perfect here in texas now - went to vote in 2000 and was told I'd already voted, I was sure it was some Bush fraud conspiracy-but it's better than mail. ID would be best.

Plus I like taking my kids with me to vote and explaining the concept to them and talking about current topics in the election. I'm so less likely to get them interested and involved in a piece of paper.

We have a holiday for the god-like but dead Presidents but we don't have a holiday to get out into our community and exercise our most important duty as citizens?

Yeah, we've got our priorities straight!

Retinal scan identification and in-person voting only. The military can exercise this in any locale and hospitals can be invaded, er, entered with handheld devices for the infirm.

Ballot tabulation within hours, verified voter qualifications, no more waiting and no more electoral college!

I look at in person voting should be the standard, even if it is early voting, you have to go to some place, show ID and then vote.

Now what I would like to see is both federal and state senators and representatives is put out polls to the constituents on what they think of any legislation before it is voted on.

The big thing is where a particular topic is addressed in the U.S./State Constitution.

"Oregon and Washington, the only two exclusively vote-by-mail states, consistently post some of the highest voter turnouts..."

Yes indeed. In a few areas voter turnout has exceeded 100%.

"...misguided sentimentality."

I'm getting really tired of the word "misguided". It sounds smug and close-minded.

I sent my US ballot in via email... scanned it and emailed it. Had to sign a waiver waiving my right to a secret ballot, but it was the only way to be sure it got there.

I also, fill out my ballot ahead of time, after research, then take it to the polling place to turn it in. My child is still young, but I never thought to bring him to the polling place, as I never was taken to the polling place as a child (nor was my husband). We both vote regularly and never take a vote for granted.

I have pics of each of my kids as little babies with "I voted" stickers on their onesies. Some day, when I get around to making baby books, those will be cool additions.

Concur w/momof4.

My 6 year old is itching to go to the polls (& get a sticker too!) with me. He has gone with me to vote about 6 times. We had several special local elections a couple years ago and he couldn't get enough. We've already discussed bond issues, local offices, national positions, etc. Great social studies lessons (& civics!). He even remembers that we used to go to a different polling place (we were last there when he was 2!).

Can't wait to take the "baby" this week. She's 3. It's a bit of a pain, but SOOOO important.