“Personally, I am very happy,” Mayor Meghan Sahli-Wells said in the afterglow of last evening’s City Council meeting when an exclusive voting-by-mail plan never reached the serious discussion stage because four members were squarely opposed.
Voting in person remains alive in Culver City.
“Personally, I love going to the polls,” Ms. Sahli-Wells said.
“I love getting my little sticker. I bring my kids with me.
“What is really fun is that you can ask a poll worker to give a sample ballot.
“Kids can use it and people who are voting for the first time can practice,” the mayor said.
“You can vote for historical figures like Thomas Jefferson or for Amelia Earhart.”
Having been enlightened about the downside of exclusive voting-by-mail, the more Ms. Sahli-Wells pondered a return to live voting, the more invigorated she felt.
“I found out I am not the only one who feels this way,” she said.
“Parents I have talked to either remember being a child and going to the polls with their parents, and they bring their children to the polls. There was a sense that this was a celebration of democracy.“The idea now is to get more people to do that.”
A former proponent of the all-mail scheme, “I learned a lot through reading and research and speaking to people,” she said about changing her mind.
“I had assumptions (about lower costs and increased turnout) that were changed.”
After presiding over her final meeting as the mayor for the past year, Ms. Sahli-Wells judged that “the most positive outcome is that the city clerk took all of our input, and he is going to do voter education to improve voter turnout.
“I am glad we had the conversation,” the mayor said. “I think it will move us forward in ways other than all voting-by-mail to bring more people to vote.”
