Once again the public is left to ponder just what lurks in the mind of lawmakers who support giving voters less time to make up their minds before casting their mail-in ballot. Already approved in the Oregon House, HB 2825 by Rep. Randy Miller, R-Lake Oswego, would require county clerks to mail ballots to voters 11 days before the ballots are due. Now voters have from two weeks to 18 days, depending on where they live.

The measure is drafted entirely for the convenience of candidates, who "have to do advertising every day that a ballot is in front of a prospective voter," Miller said in support of it.

That may be a consideration for candidates, but it is inconsiderate to voters. In recent general elections in particular, the menu of initiatives, measures, candidates and spending items before voters has been prodigious. In the not-too-distant past, voters actually had from the spring primary to the general election day in November to decide how they would push those chads or mark those ballots. Just a little over two weeks is not enough, human nature being what it is.

Representatives from both parties should be putting their priority on giving the voters who elect them as much time as possible. After all, polls indicate that if the last presidential election had been held a few weeks earlier, the outcome might have been very different.

The public has accepted the convenience and cost-savings of mailed-in ballots, but this measure holds no actual monetary benefit to them or to the state. Cooler heads in the Senate should send this bill to the dead bill boneyard.