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How a free postage stamp can help save American democracy

Even minor inconveniences can tank voter turnout.

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, an avid stamp collector and member of the American Philatelic Society, works on his collection in the Oval Office. (Photo by Hulton-Deutsch/Hulton-Deutsch Collection/Corbis via Getty Images)
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, an avid stamp collector and member of the American Philatelic Society, works on his collection in the Oval Office. (Photo by Hulton-Deutsch/Hulton-Deutsch Collection/Corbis via Getty Images)

Washington State is a vote-by-mail state. Voters receive their ballots at least 18 days before the election, and their ballot is counted so long as it is postmarked by Election Day. Voters may also submit their ballots in person at drop boxes.

This was the first year that voters in King County, the state’s largest county that includes the city of Seattle, did not need to buy a stamp in order to vote — King County voters receive prepaid postage. The result, according to the King County Elections Department, was a higher rate of voter turnout in 2018’s primary elections than in any previous primary since 2004.

The year 2004, it is also worth noting, was a presidential election year, and those years typically feature higher turnout than in off-year elections.

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It is likely that there are other factors in play that help explain this spike in turnout beyond prepaid postage — Donald Trump is unpopular, for example, and his unpopularity appears to be driving higher turnout among Democratic voters. Yet, the data out of King County also offers a window into how much of an impact a very small inconvenience or cost can have on voter turnout. A first-class stamp for an ordinary letter costs only 50 cents.

Indeed, there is a long history of voter suppression laws in the United States which rely on fairly minor barriers to skew the electorate to the right. In 1964, according to Pew, the highest poll tax in the country was Mississippi’s — and it was only $2, or about $15 today. That was a significant imposition on a very poor sharecropper, but it was hardly a fortune.

Similarly, voter ID laws are a common tactic used by Republican lawmakers to reduce the number of ballots cast by low-income voters, students, and voters of color. Like the poll tax, it is often a significant imposition on very poor voters, but it is, at most, a minor inconvenience for the majority of voters.

If Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh is confirmed, it is likely that the Court will remove any meaningful checks on these sort of voter suppression tactics, and laws intended to drive down Democratic turnout will thrive. Democrats will need to fight this tactic by opposing voter suppression laws when they can, but they can also fight voter suppression with its opposite — by enacting laws intended to make it easier to cast a ballot.

As King Country shows, even something as simple as a free postage stamp can make a big difference.