Amendment 28: Mail Ballot Elections
This proposed amendment to the Colorado Revised Statutes would require that all elections be handled only by mail-in ballots. There would no longer be any voting by pulling levers or pushing buttons at your local school or wherever. It also tries to account for possible concerns about mail-in ballots.

I don't have any problem with the basic idea of mail-in ballots, and Amendment 28 seems well-intentioned, but I still would not support it. I believe that there are still problems with mail-in ballots, and requiring all elections to use exclusively mail-in ballots is too troublesome.

It is true that voting by mail is convenient, cheap, and popular, and that the new security precautions introduced in this amendment would be welcome. I'm less concerned with the opposition's first argument that mail-in ballots are subject to theft or fraud, but I do feel that polling places offer more privacy and protection, and that people should be able to make voting decisions up to the day of the election, as information will be available up to that point that may change a voter's opinion.

As the proponents point out, 88 percent of all votes in the November 2001 election were cast by mail, so there is certainly no reason to think that people do not have the option to mail in their ballots. I would in fact support an amendment allowing mail-in voting for all elections. I do not support this amendment banning any other form of ballot casting.

Blake votes No on Amendment 28.