I am pleased that at long last King County has gone over to mail-in ballot only voting; this method should prove less error prone, safer and far cheaper. King County taxpayers ought to see significant savings over the walk-in polling place with voting machine system. The individual voter should find mail-in balloting a more efficient use of their time and cheaper – a postage stamped ballot placed in your home mailbox is more economical than driving to a polling place.

The idea of a ballot drop bin is sound, the voter goes to a place with a bin and drops in his unstamped ballot. Cheap, simple and easy, right?

As a two time polling-place supervisor, I learned that the task of managing a voting place is not rocket science, but requires seeing the big picture and paying attention to the details. Both times I was successful in having a problem free polling place operation.

In the recent vote for an elections director, the incumbent ran and won. I believe in the overall concept of drop bins, provided that the bin is centrally located in a high traffic area, near where the voter is going anyway, lest he drive a distance to save using a stamp – a grossly wasteful scenario.

A drop bin was placed outside at the Black Diamond library, which at the time had limited access due to road closures. Then that location is not central to where a mass of voters are, whereas Covington library is. Next there is the issue of an unattended bin being subject to many forms of vandalism. The bin should be secured inside, in view of a clerk, with at least a daily pickup of ballots. Our ballots are far too important to be wasted by an act of vandalism. When spending taxpayer money, it is mandatory to get the maximum value from each dollar spent.

Incidentally, I saved a stamp by using the Des Moines library drop bin, as I was driving within a block of it.

Anthony E. Pomata

Maple Valley