Consider voting entirely by mail

After our recent Illinois primaries, several comments have been shared regarding the good or bad of voting by mail. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, eight states — California, Colorado, Hawaii, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Vermont, Washington and the District of Columbia — allow all elections to be conducted entirely by mail. Oregon implemented vote by mail in 2000 and Colorado in 2014 and the most recent implementation was in 2023 for the District of Columbia. All of these states have successfully implemented voting that is safe, efficient and cost effective, while engaging more voters.

Perhaps those people who suggest that all voting should be on Election Day and in person may be interested in participating in community civic engagement by volunteering to become an election judge. There has been a shortage of election judges as some people think it is “too much work” or they are concerned for their own safety. In Arizona, poll workers are being trained with active shooter drills. For those of us who have volunteered their time we would like to share our experiences.

As a Cook County election judge, we spend four hours for in-person training. Additionally, anywhere from three to five hours online training is required to be completed before Election Day. Another hour is required to set up equipment the day or two before Election Day. Finally, Election Day starts early at 5 a.m. to finalize preparations and open up the polls. Polls open at 6 a.m. and close at 7 p.m. and then shut down and clean up adds another hour or more followed by two judges carrying the ballots to the Receiving Station.

Fifteen hours on Election Day allowed less than 100 voters to vote in one of our precincts and just over 100 voters in another. It certainly is a lot of time and cost to allow 200 people to cast a vote in person. Perhaps it is time for Illinois to review other states successful voting entirely by mail.

Laura Davis

Inverness