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7.1.D. - Page 12 <br /> Overview of Vote-by-mail research to date <br /> This section includes selected studies and results of research on vote-by-mail systems <br /> to date. There have been relatively few opportunities to study vote-by-mail systems in <br /> California, simply because all absentee elections are generally not allowed. Thus, most <br /> research so far was either conducted in jurisdictions outside of California that have <br /> generally varied greatly from the demographic make-up of this State, or it was conducted <br /> using "proxies" to vote-by-mail elections. <br /> One study conducted by the California State University East Bay falls into the latter <br /> category. In most California elections, there are some precincts that are designated all <br /> vote-by-mail even if there are polling places available for all other precincts. One of the <br /> reasons for why these precincts exist is that they or the ballot groups they represent are <br /> too small to warrant the establishment of a polling place. These precincts are often <br /> referred to as 'forced vote-by-mail precincts' because voters are not given a choice on <br /> how to cast a ballot. This study looked specifically at 97,581 individuals in all vote-by- <br /> mail precincts across four recent elections in 5 counties in California. The study found <br /> that the vote-by-mail system significantly reduced the odds that an individual voter would <br /> actually vote, citing a decrease in estimated voting odds of 50% in urban populations, <br /> 30.3% for Asian voters, and 27.3% for Latino voters. Moreover, there was an increase in <br /> Democratic turnout by close to 6 percent over Republicans. Still, the study notes that <br /> 6 <br />