I just got a letter from the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder:

Dear Voter,

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Our records indicate you regularily vote absentee/by-mail. If you wish to continue to do so in all future elections, we suggest you complete and return the Application for Permanent Absentee on the reverse side of this letter. Using this application to request PAV status will result in mailing your ballot automatically to you as soon as it is available … This means you will no longer need to request an absentee ballot prior to each election. A ballot will automatically be mailed to you.

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The Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk wants to make the voting experience for all voters as convenient as possible

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Sincerely,

Conny B. McCormack
Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk

Indeed, it just can’t get much easier! From an academic perspective, though, I wonder how effective mailings like these are; hopefully we can get some data on how many responses are generated by proactive mailings like these and how many new permanent absentee voters are added to those rolls by such efforts.