Oregon and Utah
Vote by mail should be a bipartisan issue.
It needs bipartisan advocates.
We have them: Oregon and Utah.
Everyone understands that Oregon is blue. Portland was the subject of parody for its over-the-top cultural blueness in the TV show Portlandia. Fox News spread Oregon's reputation, using it as a poster child of presumed Democratic disfunction. Oregon's reputation is a caricature. No matter. Oregon's reputation is securely blue.
Everyone understands Utah is red. Utah is the strait-laced, LDS-dominated, corny, Eagle Scout, all-American archetype of family-values Republican red. It is red without irony or apology. It is old-school red, small town red. Utah's reputation for redness is secure.
The reputations of these two states are a national asset. They offer credibility and reassurance to partisans of both parties. Both states use vote by mail. Elected officials with knowledge and experience know it works. They say so publicly.
Vote by mail resolves the problems of long lines on election days. It allows better vote security than in-person voting because bar-coded envelopes and signature matching mean ballots are trackable and linked to identifiable people. It spreads out what is otherwise a crush of people in one day, a workday. Mail voting lets people read ballot titles and arguments at their own pace, sitting at a kitchen table, not standing in a booth. Mail balloting creates an auditable paper trail.
Oregon now has a Democrat as our chief election official, the Secretary of State, elected in 2020. The 2020 election was overseen by Republican Beverly Clarno, who filled the unexpired term of Republican Dennis Richardson. Oregon's 2020 election went off without problems. In April, 2021, after reviewing the referrals from county clerks and the questions raised by skeptics, Secretary of State Shemia Fagan wrote, "To be clear, there is no reason to doubt the security and results of the 2020 election. In fact, there is every reason to trust their accuracy and security."
However, she said she realized mail voting is under attack. "We are not immune to the poison of misinformation. Despite becoming the nation's first all vote by mail state over 20 years ago, and where Republicans and Democrats alike have served as Secretaries of State," there remains distrust of vote-by-mail, she said. It is due to "misinformation and disinformation" in an echo chamber of social media and "some media outlets."
Democrat Fagan from Oregon has little credibility to change minds within that echo chamber. Republican voters have heard from better-trusted voices that mail voting is irredeemably corrupt. Fagan is on team blue. Why trust her?
Utah's election went smoothly, too. Their chief election office is their Lieutenant Governor. In 2020 their Lt. Governor was Spencer Cox, a Republican. He was on the ballot for governor and he won. He said there was "no evidence of mass voter fraud" either in Utah or nationally. The new Lt. Governor, Deidre Henderson, also a Republican, vouched for the safety and quality of the Utah vote-by-mail system. "I'm confident in the integrity of our elections."
Utah election officials have credibility with Republicans. Oregon election officials have credibility with Democrats. That is the opportunity. Together, the election officials of the two states could meet to declare mail voting to be a safe, indeed superior, system. The joint message demonstrates with body language that there is no hidden, secret advantage to one party or another. It isn't a devious plot. Mail ballots elect people of both parties.
Governor Cox took time in his State of the State address this week to bemoan the "unsubstantiated claims and flat-out lies" that have undermined faith in elections. Governor Cox is sending a message Oregon should welcome:
As a conservative, I believe that we should always work to make constitutional rights more accessible, not less. I am very proud that voter participation has increased since I became lieutenant governor and now governor. We can have safe and secure elections without making it harder to exercise our constitutional right to vote.”
Oregon's Fagan and Brown could say the same thing, changing only the opening words to "As a Democrat." The time is ripe. The nation is debating voting access. There is misinformation shaping the debate. Republicans are distrustful. Oregon and Utah, standing together with the same message, makes a powerful statement.
Oregon, pick up the phone. Call Utah.