(1) I think it would be less of an expense. The ballot would be in/with the club magazine, and those voting could be made to sign it and put down membership number. (Now, ballots are mailed separately to those who nominated chips. Under my idea, this separate mailing would be eliminated, though you do have the printing cost of ballots in/with the club mag.)

(2) less chance of ballot-stuffing (which is not much of an issue anyway, I think) with open voting, and certainly ballot-stuffing (building a "ballot block" would be a better term) would have less of an impact with a large vote (greater participation). Before, with a smaller vote, one could get one's friends lined up to nominate anything so you'd have a relatively large voting block assembled. But with open voting for all members, there is no problem, especially with signed, membership-numbered ballots.

RE