Vote-by-mail expands.

• Position: TRENDS AND TRANSITIONS - Brief article

As election officials are being asked to do more with less, states are expanding the use of all-mail balloting for local elections to eliminate polling place costs.

In 1998, Oregonians passed an initiative requiring all elections be conducted by mail. In 2005, the Washington Legislature enacted a local-control law giving counties discretion to conduct all-mail elections. Today, 38 of the state's 39 counties vote by mail.

Although 27 states currently allow any voter to choose a mail-in absentee ballot, only 16 states allow some form of all-mail voting: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Hawaii, Idaho, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon and Washington.

New ballot tracking technology, used in California since 2008, allows absentee voters to verify, online or by phone, that their ballots were received. The federal Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment Act of 2009 now requires all states to use a similar system.

Election officials often say all-mail elections save money. In May, the Oregon secretary of state testified before the U.S. Senate that...