Don’t go the polls – they’ll come to you, beginning with fall elections.

Finance trumped tradition on Monday, as the Kitsap County commissioners approved a resolution closing the physical polls and turning the county into a vote by mail zone.

The vote was unanimous, with Central Kitsap Commissioner Patty Lent and South Kitsap’s Jan Angel both saying that preserving the tradition of voting in person was not worth the approximately $1 million it would cost to keep the polls open.

“My family votes at the polls,” said North Kitsap Commissioner Chris Endresen. “It makes us feel that we have done our duty.

“But while I feel that we should all go to the polls on Election Day and it should be a national holiday, it’s not cost-effective. And we need to spend every tax dollar as efficiently and wisely as we can.”

County Auditor Karen Flynn, a long-time advocate of voting by mail, said there were three reasons to support the resolution.

An estimated 86 percent of Kitsap voters mail in their ballots. Equipment required by new federal law will cost $732,000, with training and maintenance costs extra. And maintaining two separate elections – one at the polls, the other by mail – increases the possibility of mistakes.

“The current system introduces another opportunity for error,” she said. “We shouldn’t be spending this money for something that 14 percent of people will use.”

The county printed flyers and took out newspaper advertisements to encourage participation in the decision.

While Endresen mentioned nostalgia and tradition as the proposal’s major drawbacks, opponents had different concerns. The criticisms included privacy, security, fraud and the voting rights of the homeless.

One participant said she would never vote again if mail was the only way to go, while another suggested that the matter should itself be put up for a public vote.

“The law goes to great lengths to prohibit electioneering at polling places,” said Marie Turnberg of Port Orchard. “At the polls you come in, make your choice with no influence from anyone else. When you vote at home there are no precautions for this.

“Your 18-year-old doesn’t have time to vote,” she said, “so you get him to sign the back of his ballot and do his voting for him. Your aged mother can’t see to vote so you do the same for her. These are benign situations. Imagine less benign ones – political party members who ‘help’ voters in nursing homes or college dorms.”

While the board’s reasoning was monetary, many speakers felt this shouldn’t be an issue. The dollar sign, said Poulsbo’s Faye Henden, shouldn’t become more important than the integrity of the process. Several said the money saved was not worth the disenfranchisement of more than 1,000 homeless people in Kitsap.

“The postman, not being an elections official, holds no accountability,” one person said. “If a voter throws his ballot in the postal trash, then someone else can vote it.”

“Voting by mail is a lot easier,” said Kris Danielson of Port Orchard. “But making something easier doesn’t necessarily make it better.

“And sometimes when you make something easier, you take it for granted.”

The change to all-mail voting takes effect this fall.