Voting in person this fall? Better line up early
The 2016 presidential election is Sarah Anderson’s first chance to vote. Anderson, a junior studying history, said she is “80 percent certain” she is going to vote for Evan McMullin.
“I am honestly not that politically inclined,” she said. “But I thought maybe I should actually vote, because… I can actually make a difference.”
Anderson said she doesn’t want her first vote ever to be “dumb,” because she’d have to live with that decision.
It’s also Cache County’s first time hosting a vote-by-mail presidential election.
Anderson said she planned to find an in-person polling location on election day. But Cache County switched to mostly mail-in ballots, so waiting to vote at a polling location at the nearest elementary school on election day isn’t an option this year. There will be three open polling locations in the county: the County Administration Building, Nibley City Office, and Smithfield Civic Center. Most students are expected to vote by mail-in ballots.
She opted to not get a ballot in the mail because she moved around so often. Anderson thought she was good to go on election night.
“I was here in Logan when I registered to vote,” she said. “Then I went home for the summer and I came back and I don’t have the same address.”
Jill Zollinger, Cache County Clerk, said most people should have received their ballots in the mail by now.
“I think everybody has an address and so they can vote,” Zollinger said.
But Anderson hasn’t received a ballot.
Anderson isn’t the only one. Damon Cann, a Utah State University professor who specializes in American politics, said youth voters struggle with voting because of how often they move around.
“For a lot of Utah State University students, their ballot might go to their parent’s house where they registered to vote, instead of going to them,” he said.
Jeff Dransfield, Cache County resident, said he is particularly upset that student votes will be repressed.
“They won’t even know where to mail in their ballots because they’re going to be living in a different place than where their information is being sent,” he said.
Zollinger said getting college students to vote was an issue in the past.
“But hopefully with mail-in ballots, they will have better opportunities to vote,” she said. “They’re busy with classes and things.”
Cache County was one of the first counties in Utah to switch to vote-by-mail nearly four years ago, said Val Potter, who served on the Cache County Council.
“The turnout for voting was very low when we first started,” he said.
Mail-in ballots were the cheaper options, he said. He also said the county was faced with buying new voting machines, which would cost $70,000 to $80,000 and the machines have a limited life span.
Zollinger said with mail-in-ballots, people can spend time to research the candidates and issues they can vote for.
“If you’re in a booth, you either don’t vote on it or you make an uninformed vote,” she said.
Two years ago, Cache County used mostly mail-in ballots during the general election.
“The turnout was up,” Potter said.
That’s exactly what Cann expected. The goal of vote-by-mail is to increase voter participation, he said. Also, it makes it easier for voters to compare and contrast candidates, Cann said.
“Vote-by-mail may initially increase voters,” he said.
When cities and counties switch to vote-by-mail, it’s a novelty for voters, so they’re more likely to vote. But Cann said that initial increase in the first election isn’t sustained over several election cycles.
“In the first vote-by-mail election, you see a spike in voter turnout, typically,” he said. “In the second, it recedes. By the third or fourth vote-by-mail, you see voter turnout back to the same place that it was before the switch.”
The increase in voter turnout only happens if there’s an accompanying media campaign to alert voters of the change in voting, Cann said.
“I’ve seen some social media from the political parties,” he said. “They carry some of that load as well as the Cache County Clerk’s office.”
Zollinger said the state of Utah ran some ads about the switch to mail-in ballots and radio PSAs were aired. However, Zollinger said Cache County didn’t host a social media campaign to alert voters. That’s the state’s responsibility.
Anderson said she never received any information about the switch to mail-in ballots.
“We haven’t gotten any ads or anything about that,” she said.
Cann said he expects there to be less people who vote by mail in Cache County during this presidential election.
“Because Cache County residents are getting accustomed to the vote-by-mail,” he said. “But there will be some.”
The last day to register to vote online or at the Cache County Clerk’s Office is Nov. 1 and the last day to send ballots to Zollinger is Nov. 6. There are several ballot drop box locations for voters to send their ballots without using a stamp. On election night, there will be three polling locations in the county, including one at the Cache County Clerk’s office.
Dransfield said three polling locations isn’t enough.
“I think it’s great that we do mail-in ballots, but when people go to vote on election day and they don’t know what’s going on, that’s going to suppress votes,” he said.
Dransfield said it doesn’t matter whether the county is doing opting to go with vote-by-mail to save money or to suppress people’s votes, it’s still suppressing votes.
“It’s unconstitutional, frankly,” he said. “And it’s undemocratic. A democracy should be concerned about it.”
Potter said by switching to vote-by-mail permanently, Cache County on the right path.
“There was some backlash because people don’t like change,” Potter.
There are more than 50,000 Cache Valley residents who are registered to vote. Zollinger said she expects 40-50 percent of those people to vote.
For more information, visit vote.utah.gov.
— @morganprobinson