On October 15, the Jackson Clarion Ledger reported an odd fact about Mississppi absentee ballots -- you can't mail one in with a single 42 cent stamp. This, it turns out, is because the envelope the state provides for voters to mail in their ballots is larger than the standard first class envelope. According to the article, the postage required will be between 82 cents and $1.40, depending on which county clerk you talk to.
In a year rife with charges of election fraud on both sides of the aisle, and especially in the wake of Senator John McCain’s allegation that ACORN may be threatening the very fabric of our democracy, anomalies like this deserve attention. Although the Clarion Ledger notes that the ballot envelopes clearly indicate the need for extra postage, it is easy to see many thousands of ballots being posted incorrectly, and many citizens being denied their right to vote.
An honest government would, one would think, want to make mailing a ballot as painless as possible. A standard envelope makes sense – the voter doesn’t have to think about anything; he or she just puts a single stamp on the thing and drops it in the box. Since the individual county clerks can't even agree on what the accurate postage is, voters will be forced to stand in line at the post office to get their ballots weighed to assure themselves that their votes will count.
When I paid my taxes last year, I remember my state tax return fit neatly into a standard envelope. When they want their money, they get it right. When voters' rights are at stake, who cares?
I find it hard to buy the argument that this is the result of poor planning and not outright fraud. It is not as if Mississippi has a stellar voting rights record. A state that has a symbol of the Confederacy on its own flag ought to be mindful of things like this. Mississippi has been holding elections since 1818. One would think a matter as simple as getting an absentee ballot to fit into a standard envelope would have come up before.
The Clarion Ledger article also notes that at least one county will be footing the bill for ballots with insufficient postage. At first, this seemed a simple and elegant solution, but then I took to thinking. What if the state government decided to pick up the postage tab only in selected counties? The Republican party that dominates state politics could pick and choose which counties would count ballots with insufficient postage and which ones would not. That is the kind of dirty trick that could easily pass under the nose of voting rights activists.
The worst part of this is that most armed services personnel vote absentee. This stupidity is going to cause problems disproportionately for the troops in Iraq.
Now that’s the mark of a political party that looks out for its soldiers.