Just for the fun of it, I thought I'd show you the polling place where I "voted early" today, at King City's (pop. 2500) City Hall:
More below the fold:
Oregon is 100% vote-by-mail, but you don't have to put a stamp on your ballot and trust it to the US Postal Service. There are ballot drop-off boxes in every municipality of any size all over the state. Some are inside Libraries, others at police stations and county office buildings. The one nearest to me is at King City's city hall. Well, sorta. It's the white box on the right, and the big orange sign clearly identifies it as the 'Official Ballot Drop Site'.
That's a parking space in front of it, so you can drive right up, drop in mail, move forward, drop in your ballot, and back out of the parking place to go on about your business. Is it safe? Note all the white cars in the background...
In Oregon, ballots arrive about 2 weeks before the election, so you have plenty of time to get around to it, too. They are printed on heavy-duty paper (I'd estimate 36 lb, where regular paper is 24 lb and manila envelopes are usually 28 lb), so if the counting machines try to eat one, it'll most likely survive. The stacks of them provide an easily recounted permanent record of the votes, unlike memory chips from a touch-screen machine w/no paper trail. There's no chad, just ovals that you've filled in using a pencil, black pen, or blue pen.
You seal your completed ballot in the provided 'security envelope', which has no uniquely identifiable markings on it. Then you place that envelope in an outer envelope with your name and address printed on it and a place for your signature, sign it, seal it, and mail it to your County's Dept. of Elections or deposit it in a collection box as I did. Ballots must be RECEIVED at one of these boxes by 8 PM on Election Day, so there are always 'last day to vote' collectors from the Dept. of Elections at these ballot boxes, right up to 8 PM. At that time, they transport the collected ballots to the Dept. of Elections county office for counting.
Once the counting process starts, Elections workers verify the signature on the outer envelope with the one on your voter registration form, then open the outer envelope, separating the security envelope/ballot from your identifying info without being able to see what your votes are. The ballots are taken out of the security envelope at a separate location (another room) and put through a counting machine. Voila! You've voted!!
And, there's no ID card bull involved anywhere in the process, not even when you fill out your original registration form. I recently moved, so had to notify the Registrar of Voters of my new address. I filled out the form online on the State of Oregon's website, downloaded it in .pdf format, printed it, signed it, folded it with the Registrar's address showing, and mailed it by the registration deadline. It can't get much easier, more secure or more verifiable than this, folks.