Oregon senator to file national vote-by-mail bill

SALEM, Ore. — As voters in Indiana waited in line at polling places to vote in their presidential primary, an Oregon senator announced that he will introduce an alternative to Congress, a national vote-by-mail bill.

The Oregon Democrat's bill, unveiled Tuesday at the Oregon State Capitol, would send a ballot to every registered voter across the USA before each election. Postage on the ballot envelopes would be prepaid.

Wyden, flanked by Oregon Gov. Kate Brown during the press conference, said bungled primaries along with efforts in at least 17 states to make voting more difficult led him to propose the legislation. He called it a simple, cost-effective and secure solution to voting problems faced around the nation.

Convenience is key, he said.

Wyden lauded Oregon for being the first state to adopt vote by mail — in 1996. Since then, Washington and Colorado have followed suit.

The result of vote by mail is that Oregon has some of the highest voter turnout rates, with nearly 83% of those registered voting in the 2012 general election.

Oregon also recently adopted a "motor voter" law, where anyone getting a driver's license is automatically registered to vote if they are eligible. The law has increased monthly voter registration tenfold, Brown said.

An animated Wyden highlighted problems in other states:

• New York. He called it "antidemocratic" when voting machines break down, as they did during New York's primary, which triggered an investigation of the state's elections board.
• Arizona. People waited for hours to vote in Arizona's primary, sparking claims of fraud and a lawsuit challenging the election results.
• Rhode Island. The state opened only one-third of its polling places for its primary.

"We don't have any of those problems," Wyden said of Oregon.

He said voting — now a "Kafka-esque experience in defeating government bureaucracy" — should not be a test of physical endurance, especially for older citizens and people with disabilities.

Republican lawmakers pursuing voter-identification laws are not doing so by accident, he said, but rather because they see a political advantage in controlling access to elections.

A perennial voting-rights activist, this is the fourth time that Wyden will introduce federal vote-by-mail legislation. The previous bills failed without votes.

He said now is different because of widespread dissatisfaction with the status quo.

"The evidence shows that democracy prevails when we vote by mail," he said.

Rep. Susan Davis, D-Calif., introduced a federal vote-by-mail bill in 2015. Congressional analysis website GovTrack.us gives it a 0% chance of being enacted.

Follow Gordon Friedman on Twitter:  @GordonRFriedman