Four counties give mail-in ballots a try

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By CARA PESEK / Lincoln Journal Star

Nearly half of Cherry County’s registered voters had the chance to cast their ballots before the polls even opened on Tuesday.

About 2,000 of the county’s 4,200 registered voters — 16 of the county’s 22 precincts — received their primary election ballots by mail and sent them in that way, too, said Cherry County Election Commissioner Tom Elliott.

Elliott said mail-in ballots wouldn’t be counted until 8 p.m., after the polls closed. But by late Tuesday morning, he said, it looked like plenty voters had decided to give the new system a try.

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“I think it’s probably too early to tell, but it looks like we’ve had a good return,” he said.

Tuesday’s primary marked the second time Cherry County voters were able to cast their ballots by mail.

A 2006 pilot program gave some Cherry County voters the opportunity to vote from home, instead of at their regular polling places.

In a county as large and sparsely populated as Cherry County, voters often live many miles away from the polls, Elliott said. New laws that require all polling places to offer sophisticated — and expensive — voting equipment at all polling places has made implementing a mail-in system cheaper and more convenient at some precincts, he said.

The 2006 pilot program went over well, and Cherry County, as well as three other counties — Boone, Morrill and Keya Paha— decided to make the switch to mail-in ballots for some precincts for Tuesday’s primary.

“Our precincts were getting so sparsely populated anymore that our election boards were going to be there all day just to serve a few voters,” Elliott said. “It just wasn’t practical with the distances involved.”

In the three Morrill County precincts that gave mail-in ballots a try, all had voter turnout rates more than 50 percent, said Kathy Brandt, county clerk and election commissioner.

Usually, she said, primary turnout is closer to 40 percent, though it depends on the issues up for vote, which Tuesday included a school bond issue.

Brandt said the mail-in voting system was also cheaper. Morrill County voters had to put their own stamps on their ballot envelopes; Boone, Cherry and Keya Paha counties sent voters postage-paid return envelopes.

“The cost is a lot less if we can do it all by mail, and the voter turnout is higher because voters don’t have an excuse not to vote,” she said.

In Boone County, where two precincts had mail-only voting, County Clerk Kathy Thorberg said she heard from one voter who said he wouldn’t have voted otherwise, because of the distance he would have had to drive.

In one of the Boone precincts, 185 were mailed out and 110 come in by early Tuesday afternoon. Voters with mail-in ballots could also take them to the clerk’s office until polls closed at 8 p.m.

In the other Boone precinct,  135 ballots were mailed out, and 74 had been returned.

In Keya Paha County, where one precinct voted via mail-in ballot, Clerk Suzy Wentworth also thought the system went well.

But not all voters were happy with the system.

“In a small community like ours, we had some complaints that it wasn’t very secretive,” she said.

As with absentee ballots, voters’ names appear on the ballot envelope, she said.

“But I’ve also heard that other precincts would do the whole election that way,” she said.

Morrill County’s Brandt said she had received mostly positive feedback, too.

“I have two precincts that are very happy with it,” she said of the mail-in voting system. “I have a third precinct that always had a pie social, and they really hated to give up the pie.”

Reach Cara Pesek at 473-7361 or cpesek@journalstar.com.