There is an interesting opinion piece (link above) on closing polling places and creating absentee precincts in Santa Clara County. It delves nicely into the pro’s and con’s of this move. Amusingly, one of the interesting aspects of in-person voting is that people really like the “I Voted” stickers. We saw this in a study we did of polling place problems in Cuyahoga County. Precincts that either did not have or ran out of those stickers had to deal with people complaining about it. My solution: Mail the “I voted” sticker with the absentee ballots. In fact, mail 3 or 4 (so your kids can have one too!) then people get the psychological boost of being able to show their civic mindedness on their sleeves — ok, on their chest — and vote remotely.