ELECTIONS / ABSENTEE BALLOTS : Quarter of Votes Expected Through Mail

About 43,000 Ventura County voters have requested absentee ballots for next Tuesday’s election, and at least one in every four voters is expected to cast a ballot by mail, a county election official said Tuesday.

The number of absentee ballots issued is the second highest ever, surpassed only by last year’s presidential election when a record 57,000 ballots were mailed out, said Bruce Bradley, assistant registrar of voters.

Bradley said he expects about 45% of the county’s 342,591 registered voters to cast ballots in Tuesday’s election, and the projected 40,400 absentee votes would make up about 26% of the total vote. “That would be the highest percentage ever in this county,” he said.

In the past, Bradley said, east county voters were the most likely to cast their ballots by mail, especially those who commute to work in Los Angeles. But over the years, he said, a growing number of residents throughout the county have opted to vote absentee because they find it more convenient.

In 1980, fewer than 20,000 absentee ballots were issued in Ventura County, but by the end of the decade the number had more than doubled.

Bradley said various political groups have helped promote absentee voting by sending out ballot requests with their mailers. For example, both supporters and opponents of Proposition 174, the so-called school voucher initiative, have mailed absentee ballots to prospective voters.

Moorpark resident Helen Taylor, co-chairwoman of Ventura County Citizens for Choice in Education, said the state Republican Party and two taxpayer organizations paid for two mailers, which included absentee ballot applications, in support of the statewide ballot measure. If approved, the measure would give parents $2,600 vouchers to send their child to a private school of their choice.

“I think it’s going to help,” Taylor said of the mailers. “But it’s not over till it’s over.”

Several candidates for the Ventura City Council and Ventura school board have purchased daily updates of absentee-voter lists since the county began issuing the ballots on Oct. 4, Bradley said. Candidates routinely use lists of voters seeking absentee ballots to help them decide who to target with political mailers, he said.

The computer tapes with the names and addresses of county voters requesting mail-in ballots are relatively inexpensive, Bradley said. The county sells a complete list for about $80, or $1.95 for every 1,000 names, Bradley said.

Records show that the county has 141,791 registered Democrats and 149,361 Republicans. The remaining 51,439 are members of minor parties or declined to state party affiliation.

Meanwhile, some rural or remote areas such as Lockwood Valley or the Los Padres National Forest above Ojai have used mail-in ballots exclusively for years.

This year, voters in Bell Canyon at the southeastern edge of the county are also being required to vote absentee, as a way to save the costs of setting up polls for the rural precinct. But not everyone is happy about it.

“I don’t think it’s fair not to have a polling place,” said resident Terry MacAdam.

Every election day for the last 18 years, Bell Canyon residents have filed into MacAdam’s garage to perform their civic duty. MacAdam said she would have preferred to keep the tradition going.

But Bradley said it is cheaper to have the 1,000 registered voters of the gated community mail their ballots. He said it costs the county about $500 to set up a polling place in MacAdam’s three-car garage.

Moreover, he said parking is inadequate and there is no accessibility for the handicapped, which federal law now requires.

“We would like not to be in residences,” Bradley said. “Putting 1,000 people in somebody’s garage is not conducive to good voting.”

Of the 184 polling places that will be set up throughout the county, only one in Camarillo will be at a residence, he said.

Although some Bell Canyon residents tend to vote absentee, MacAdam said more than 700 people tromped through her garage last November to cast their ballots.

Bradley said the county will wait to see how many vote absentee in this election before deciding whether to return to MacAdam’s garage. He said there is no other facility in the development that is available for a polling place.