Vote by Mail.

I live in the state of Oregon and this state has a peculiar voting system called vote by mail. Basically every eligible household gets a big voter pamphlet containing all the measures that have been authorized to appear in the elections. What are measures you ask ? Measures are initiatives that individuals or organizations sponsor to be made as laws. One of the law in this year's election is the campaign finance measure that will limit the contributions made by companies to the election campaigns. If you have a good idea that you think should be made in to a law you gather signatures from other people and submit it to the secretary of state (similar to the post of Home Secretary in Indian states). The secretary of state then verifies that the signatures are valid and certifies your idea as something that can be put in the ballot for the public to vote on.

This year there are many such number of measures that Oregon public will vote upon. In addition this also the year when Oregonians will vote for a new Governor. The incumbent Ted Kulongosky (I call him Kulothungan) is up against republican Ron Saxton. Ron Saxton might be affected by all that is going around the republican party including sex scandals, graft charges and not to mention Iraq war.

And all these measures and governorship elections are conducted via mail. The voters get the booklet which clearly explains the for and against for each of the measures and the voters then pick their choice and drop it in to the mailbox. If the voter chooses to mail their vote last Friday was the deadline so that the vote can reach the county office by Tuesday. Otherwise they can drop off their vote at designated places by Monday 8:00PM. Apparently this system has been working fine that other states are catching up.

Now do you think such vote by mail is even possible in the Mobocracy practised in India ?