Denver had some runoffs after the typical local spring elections. We had over a dozen people running for Mayor, so that led to a runoff, of course. Additionally, our incumbent city council member needs to go, so there were several candidates trying to unseat her. Unfortunately, she’s still in it; fingers crossed for the new guy.
But both in the fall and this spring, voting has never been easier. Everyone in Denver gets a voting packet by mail. It’s amazing.
- The packet has both English and Spanish and also has ways to request packets in other languages.
- The ballot looks like a scantron; just bubble in your votes.
- The envelope to return the ballot has some odd “engineering” (it has small holes in it).
- The “blue book” is a list of every item you can vote for that describes it and explains what a YES or NO vote means. Each candidate gets a small bio paragraph, too. If you ever researched your vote in Texas, it’s similar to the paper produced by the League of Women Voters, but it’s more thorough.
- It truly is “voting, but for smart people.”*
[Yes, you can still go vote in person, but why would you put yourself through that?]
It’s quick and efficient. It results in a higher voter turnout. It’s cheap. It gives you time to really research/consider every topic/candidate.
* With very rare exceptions, the only people who are really against this are the same ones who don’t want to make voting easier or more accessible. They know they can’t win if more people vote, so they want to make voting more difficult. That way, only the affluent (and white) enough people can make the time and effort to vote. Don’t believe me? Look up voting restrictions in states like Texas and Georgia.