Inside Bay Area - Local News

We may get all-mail voting here in Alameda county (Berkeley and Oakland). From Ian Hoffman ("Registrar keen on idea of all-mail voting for county"):

[More:]

In the chaotic marketplace for voting equipment, California counties are scrapping their vendors, dumping one machine for another and experimenting with new kinds of voting.

The boldest move yet could come in Alameda County, where, if the elections chief has her wish, there would be no polling places and no voting machines in the June primary %u2014 just a straightforward, all-mail election like the entire state of Oregon has used for years.

Almost half of Alameda County voters in November -- 47 percent -- mailed in their ballots, a 10 percent increase in two years. But the big reason that Acting Registrar of Voters Elaine Ginnold wants an all-mail election is that virtually every major voting system that she might buy lacks state or national approval or has some other major problem. "This doing things in a hurry with millions of dollars in voting equipment, you want to make sure you get it right," Ginnold said. "With all of the uncertainty in voting equipment right now it just doesn't make sense to spend all that money on it."