Letter: Voters need to know that mailing their ballots isn’t free, is unreliable and less secure

Rick Vermeers explains that drop boxes are a much less expensive, more reliable, and more secure method of returning ballots than the USPS

Editor’s note: Opinions expressed in this letter to the editor are those of the author alone and do not reflect the editorial position of ClarkCountyToday.com

On Tuesday, Feb. 27, there was no delivery of ballots to the Caples Post Office for the Presidential Primary in Clark County. This is a normal occurrence because all mail from Clark County goes to Portland for sorting prior to returning to Clark County Elections. Friday and Saturday mail may be delivered on Monday, but mail deposited on Monday will likely be delivered on Wednesday.

However, the Wednesday mail also was not delivered to the Caples Post Office for the normal 7:15 a.m. transport to Elections. Instead, it was delivered to the Downtown Vancouver Post office at a later time. The processing of those 7,000 ballots was delayed for most of the morning. Machine sorting, which would normally start at around 7:30 a.m., was delayed until after 11 a.m. The Drop Box pickup crews arrived at the Elections Office at about the same time with approximately 7,000 more ballots, leaving over 14,000 ballots to process in a half day. The result was left over ballots at the end of the work day.

If that wasn’t enough, the same mistake was repeated by the USPS on Thursday, Feb. 29 with over 10,000 more ballots. The snowball effect continued when the Friday delivery was late as well.

The conclusion is that the USPS is not focussed on Vote By Mail and perhaps should not be. According to Elections Officials, Clark County residents paid 75 cents each to have those ballots delivered late by the USPS for a total of approximately $18,000 through Thursday alone. Drop boxes are a much less expensive, more reliable, and more secure method of returning ballots than the USPS. No one except election workers will see your ballot once deposited and you’ll be saving tax dollars.

Voters need to know that mailing their ballots isn’t free, is unreliable and less secure.

Rick Vermeers
Clark County Certified Election Observer