[MissoulaGov] committee update 3-4-09- mail ballot issue

[Brad Curtiss]

I know this changes the subject but I wanted to make sure all of you had the
opportunity to understand the County’s position on the mail ballot issue.
Thanks Jean Curtiss

 

Guest Opinion 

Mail ballots lower costs, increase turnout
Monday, March 2, 2009
By JEAN CURTISS, BILL CAREY, MICHELE LANDQUIST and VICKIE ZEIER


 



 

The county commissioners and election administrators across Montana are
supporting a bill that would allow each county the option of running all of
their elections, including federal and state elections, by mail ballot.

In Missoula County, the elections office has been running elections by mail
ballot for many years, including fire district, school bond and municipal
elections. We have never had the option under Montana law to run our federal
or state elections in this manner.

With the ever-growing number of absentee ballots requested and the
complexity and cost of running elections, mail ballots are a good choice for
our state. In the 2008 presidential election in Missoula County, 54 percent
of the ballots cast were voted absentee, not at a polling place.




If we used mail ballots we would provide secure sites throughout the county
where you could drop off your ballot on and before Election Day. Drop-off
locations could include Lolo, Seeley Lake, Bonner, Frenchtown, Cold Springs,
Paxson, Rattlesnake, Hellgate Elementary, Emma Dickenson (Adult Education
Building) and the Courthouse. We would provide Automark machines that assist
disabled residents in voting their ballot independently at these drop off
sites as well.

Here are some other advantages of voting by mail:

- Lower election administration costs. If mail ballot elections had been
held in 2008, approximately $4 million dollars of taxpayer money would have
been saved statewide.

- No waiting in line. For smaller communities this may not be an issue, but
in larger communities as the increasing costs of elections force more
counties to eliminate polling locations in favor of consolidation, this
issue could hinder voting.

- No polling-place intimidation. In many Montana counties, law enforcement
is often required to maintain order and many voters are very uncomfortable
with the electioneering done 100 feet from the polling place.

- No confusion about where to go to vote. With consolidation and
redistricting, polling places often change.

- No need to make arrangements for child care or time off from work. This is
a benefit to single mothers and lower income workers.

- No need to hire and train poll workers. Missoula and Yellowstone counties
both recruit and train more than 750 election judges, and Ravalli County
recruits and trains about 275 election judges. It is increasingly difficult
to find enough individuals willing to work on Election Day.

- Increased election process integrity through signature verification. Every
ballot is returned in an envelope that must be signed by you as the person
who voted your ballot. We compare this signature to your voter registration
card. Signatures are never verified in polling place elections.

- Increased voter turnout. Since 1998, Montana has always ranked behind both
Oregon and Washington since they moved to mail ballot elections. Prior to
their movement to mail ballot elections, Montana consistently had a higher
voter turnout.

- Time for voter to make well-informed decisions and ask questions. In
polling place elections, some voters feel “rushed” into voting for
candidates or issues of which they may be ill-informed. With mail ballot
elections they have the time and opportunity to make well informed
decisions.

- No worry about missing an election. The ballot for each election would
automatically be mailed to you. With all of our busy schedules, it is so
easy to miss out on voting.

A few interesting items from an Oregon mail ballot study include:

- Overall, Oregonians prefer voting by mail over voting at the polling place
80.9 percent to 19.1 percent.

The three categories of employment status who most favor voting by mail are
homemakers (93.3 percent), disabled (89.3 percent) and retired (85.5
percent)

- The two age groups who most favor voting by mail are 18- to 25-year-olds
(86.7 percent) and 65+ years old (86 percent).

- Rural voters favor mail ballot more than urban (81.3 percent to 80.2
percent).

- The three categories of income that most favor voting by mail are the
three lowest categories, less than $18,000 (81.1 percent), $18,000 n $25,000
(84.4 percent) and $26,000 n $40,000 (83.7 percent).

There are many reasons the commissioners and election administrators are
supporting this effort. But, we want to know how the citizens in Missoula
County feel about it. We would like to hear from you.

You can contact us by phone, mail or e-mail. We look forward to hearing from
you.

Jean Curtiss, Bill Carey and Michele Landquist are Missoula’s county
commissioners. Vickie Zeier is the county elections administrator. 

 

 

 

  _____  

From: missoulagov-bounces at cmslists.com
[mailto:missoulagov-bounces at cmslists.com] On Behalf Of Bob Jaffe
Sent: Thursday, March 05, 2009 10:01 AM
To: MOLLY GALUSHA; missoulagov at cmslists.com
Subject: Re: [MissoulaGov] committee update 3-4-09

 

It is scheduled to start the Monday after school lets out in June.

 

  _____  

From: MOLLY GALUSHA [mailto:mgmjpg at msn.com]
Sent: Thu 3/5/2009 10:13 AM
To: Bob Jaffe; missoulagov at cmslists.com
Subject: Re: [MissoulaGov] committee update 3-4-09

What has happened to the Beckwith roundabout? It is shovel ready last I
heard. Will 2009 be the year it is begun and completed?

Molly

 

----- Original Message -----

From: Bob Jaffe

Sent: Wednesday, March 04, 2009 9:10 PM

To: missoulagov at cmslists.com

Subject: [MissoulaGov] committee update 3-4-09

 

Greetings,

In Public Safety this morning we had a discussion about maintenance and
obstructions of bike lanes. Some highlights are that the streets department
cleans and plows the bike lanes just the same as the roads. But as the cars
drive down the road they splash and push the snow and debris out to the
sides in the bike lane again.  So after a day or so the road appears as if
it has been maintained but not the bike lane  The bottom line is that we
simply do not have the resources to keep the bike lanes clear all the time.


There were two other main issues. One is the design deficiencies in some of
the bike lane installations. Bob Giordono had some photos showing things
like sidewalk bulbouts that cut right across the bike lane. We can make sure
these kinds of things don’t happen anymore. We also talked about people
putting their leaves or snow into the bike lane. This is also an area we can
improve. Plow operators need to know they can not push the snow out into the
right of way. People shoveling their sidewalks need to know they can’t throw
the snow into the road. Leaves can be spread out in a long row instead of in
a big pile.  Cars need to be aware of not parking in the bike lane.  All
these things need a higher level of awareness in the community.

 

Next was the park dedication regs in PAZ.  Last time we decided that park
dedication would apply to minor subdivisions of 3,4, and 5 lots if the
zoning allowed for multifamily. Today we decided that for multifamily on all
subdivisions the calculation would be .02 acres per unit with a cap of ten
units per acre. Single family and duplex units will still calculate the old
way at 11% on lots of ½ acre or less graduating to lower percentages as the
lot gets bigger up to five acres.  The reason for the change is that the
percentage formula assumes the home on the bigger lot will have less need
for parks. But when a whole bunch of units get put on one large lot it is
the opposite. Our current regulation did not address this situation. As a
break to the building industry this season we made these changes effective
1/1/2010.   

 

Still to be discussed are changes to the zoning ordinance. Some of the
issues are capturing a park dedication on multifamily units being built on
land that is not being subdivided; and figuring how landscaping requirements
can work with park requirements. We moved to have staff pursue these issues
in the context of the larger zoning rewrite that is taking place.

 

After lunch we took up the issue of redistricting the wards for the upcoming
city council elections.  State law requires that the districts all be 3%+-
of each other. The population estimates are based on census numbers and
building permits. All the wards are about 10,500 people except ward two has
about 12,000 and ward five is a little short. For fear of being accused of
gerrymandering we were all a little shy about making specific suggestions on
how to fix it.  But Dick summed it up when he said the excess population in
ward two will either go to the east to ward one pushing everything clockwise
around the map or it will go south to ward six pushing everything
counterclockwise. We decided to leave it up to Dave Dewing, the map guy at
OPG, to figure the numbers and give us options. 

 

We ended the day with public works where we bought a bunch of stuff
including the “odor characterization” study I spoke of last week. We learned
that even though the price of oil has come down the price of asphalt has
not. Prices were disappointingly high. Paving activities will be limited
this year.

 

Thanks for your interest,

 

Bob Jaffe

Missoula City Council, Ward 3

bjaffe at ci.missoula.mt.us

406-728-1052

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