An All-Mail Vote in Colorado?

State leaders in Colorado are mulling over the possibility of conducting November's elections partially or entirely by mail, as the result of the state's decertification last month of electronic voting in 54 of the counties in the state.

Colorado officials will need to make a decision pretty quickly, with dwindling options and little time to prepare for a major change, the New York Times reports.

Mail-in ballots have been optional across Colorado since 1992, and about 30 percent of the statewide vote in the last few elections has come in by mail.

All of the arguments for and against all-mail voting are playing out in Colorado, but under the pressure of a timeclock. Most election clerks tend to favor voting-by-mail, while political officials are not so sure.


Kathryn Young, the Colorado Springs City Clerk told KKTV in Colorado Springs, that an all mail in ballot election would turn more votes. "I think there's a little more control over the process of a mail in ballot election", Young said. Plus it's cheaper and perhaps more thorough.

"A horde of “unsophisticated” voters stuffing the ballot box looms within the realm of possibilities if voters are forced to use mail-in ballots this November", Mesa County Commissioner Steve Acquafresca told the Daily Sentinel in Grand Junction.

Currently, 29 states allow some option of mail-in absentee voting that does not require the voter to explain the request for a mail ballot, according to Electionline.org.

The Federal Government also mandated that a statewide Voter Registration Database be implemented two years ago. but Colorado still hasn't complied.

Is Colorado up to the task?