Sigh. You just can’t make headway on some issues.

Sec’y of State Jennifer Brunner (OH) gave a wide ranging interview recently about the upcoming presidential contest. There’s not a lot of new things in here, other than she’s expecting 80% turnout in Ohio, which would be shockingly high. It’s better to be prepared, however, as we saw in the many states who did not print enough ballots or have enough machines ready for the primary.

At the end of the interview, though, she links Oregon’s voting by mail system with the state’s 90% turnout rate. I guess she hasn’t read my work …

Current research (not just mine) shows that voting by mail causes, at most, a 4% increase in turnout in presidential contests. This is based on the results from a single state and has not been replicated in any other state, even those which allow no-excuse and permanent no-excuse absentee balloting.