I want to thank Michaela Rodeno for continuing the dialogue that her husband began with me almost seven years ago about the conversion of their precinct to vote by mail (“Coerced into voting by mail,” Nov. 21). Their precinct was converted during the 2001 supervisorial redistricting, when the precinct shifted from the 2nd to 3rd District to recognize the greater population, and smaller geographical footprint of the 2nd District. Because there were fewer than 250 voters who voted at a polling place in the Rodenos’ new 3rd District precinct, state law allowed me in my capacity as registrar of voters to convert that precinct to vote by mail.

Voters in that precinct had voted previously at the Rutherford Grange, which continued to serve voters from the 2nd District until 2008, when it was also converted to vote by mail. Guidelines for assigning voters to polling places require that voters from two different supervisor districts should not be at the same polling place because of the possibility of an incorrect ballot being given to a voter.

Throughout California, the number of voters voting at their polling place has dropped rapidly since the Legislature allowed anyone to request permanent vote-by-mail status effective Jan. 1, 2000. By July 2008, 58 Napa County polling places no longer had 250 voters voting at their polling place. I converted approximately 16,000 voters to vote by mail when I closed those polling places.

I empathize with the Rodenos’ frustration at not having a polling place because I converted myself to mandatory vote by mail. I have heard from more than 100 voters who share the Rodenos’ feelings. However, my responsibility as registrar of voters is to provide all voters with a voter-friendly method of casting their ballot in every election. My primary goal for this recent, historic presidential election was to avoid long lines at polling places, which had occurred in November 2006, when more than 100 voters left without voting because they could not wait up to 90 minutes in line. There was no economic motive for the conversion because the cost of mailing ballots and paying the return postage on those ballots for 16,000 voters is at least as much as the cost of maintaining 58 polling places.

The successful conduct of the recent presidential election, with the highest turnout in recent history, showed that converting to vote by mail was the appropriate decision on my part. There were no lines on Election Day at the 41 remaining polling places because we were able to shift poll workers and voting equipment from the 58 polling places that were closed. Every vote-by-mail ballot was verified and counted accurately. Napa County was one of the first counties to submit its certified results to the Secretary of State. Napa County will have one of the highest turnouts in California in this election at 84.09 percent. Sixty of our 106 vote-by-mail precincts exceeded the countywide turnout.

I am available to discuss voters’ reactions to my decision to convert precincts to vote by mail in person, by phone at 253-4459 or by e-mail at jtuteur@co.napa.ca.us.

(Tuteur is the Napa County Registrar of Voters.)