With the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic at the beginning of the year and the United States hoping to hold a Presidential election in November, some states across America look to ease the burden on voters and attempt to slow the spread of the virus by switching to mail in voting. While mail-in voting has always been an option in most states, it usually required certain permissions or requirements such as being sick or not being able to attend a voting booth on the day (1). However, what pros and cons have been brought up for a nation-wide postal vote, and does it seem like a viable option for the 2020 election?
Five states already have pre-existing permanent automatic mail-in systems, these include, Colorado, Hawaii, Oregon, Utah, and Washington. In these states eligible voters are sent ballots by default which allow them to vote from home, although voting by mail is not the only option and people in these states are able to walk into a voting center and place their votes on election day (2). Many other states have begun to implement the same approach in response to the pandemic, California, Nevada, Montana, Vermont, and New Jersey are sending out automatic mail-in ballots, while 17 other states are sending out automatic applications to vote (3).
One of the main benefits of a nation-wide mail-in voting system which gets brought up time and time again is the convenience of being able to vote from your own home, not having to stand in a line waiting to cast your vote and avoiding the spread or capture of Covid, merely filling in the boxes and mailing the ballot back before election day. Governor of New York Andrew Cuomo supports the idea saying, “I’ve seen lines of people on television voting in other states. This is totally nonsensical. God bless them for having such diligence for their civic duty that they would go stand on a line to vote. People shouldn’t have to make that choice, and, by executive order, all New Yorkers can vote absentee on the June 23 primaries coming up.” (4).
Voter turnout was thought to be another positive of the mail-in voting system, with the convenience suspected to increase voter volume. The National Conference of State Legislators points out that the effects are more pronounced for those who are registered, yet rarely vote (5). Yet another study done by a team at Stanford Institute for Economic Policy research found that, “1 — vote-by-mail does not appear to affect either party’s share of turnout; 2 — vote-by-mail does not appear to increase either party’s vote share; and 3 — vote-by-mail modestly increases overall average turnout rates, in line with previous estimates. All three conclusions support the conventional wisdom of election administration experts and contradict many popular claims in the media.” (6)
Though the idea of avoiding mass crowds on voting day to help avoid spreading Corona virus is definitely one to be looked into, negatives of nation-wide mail in voting must be taken into consideration as well. One of those concerns being general security and perhaps coercion by family members into voting another way (7), although it can be quite common for families to share political ideologies. Another is ballot harvesting, which “generally refers to someone collecting absentee ballots on behalf of others and then submitting them.” (8). “Once that ballot is out of the hands of the elector, we have no idea what happens to it,” (9) pointed out a Miami–Dade County Grand Jury.
Problems with the United States Post Service also arise. Not usually having to cope with such a huge influx of mail, and for something so important, do they have the capacity to get voters ballots in on time? The Florida primary earlier this year had more than 18,000 ballots go un-counted due to arriving after the state’s deadline of 7pm by no fault of the voter (10), and although the number of uncounted mail-in ballots only made up about 1.3 percent of the total mail ballots cast (11), what if this happens on a much grander scale? It doesn’t seem fair that some will not have their votes counted.
The mail-in voting system also makes it incredibly difficult for Native Americans living on reservations where they may not have a street number or address, or where multiple people share a P.O Box which can be up to 40 miles away (12). This would take away a large section of voters in and of itself.
While the Pandemic continues on and a Presidential election gets closer and closer, a decision is going to have to be made. Will the United States adopt a mail-in vote approach to try to maintain and slow the spread of Covid-19, or will social distancing and appropriate protective wear on election day be enough?
-Trent Naz
(1) West, D., 2020. How Does Vote-By-Mail Work And Does It Increase Election Fraud?. [online] Brookings. Available at: <https://www.brookings.edu/policy2020/votervital/how-does-vote-by-mail-work-and-does-it-increase-election-fraud/> [Accessed 31 July 2020].
(2) Ncsl.org. 2020. All-Mail Elections (Aka Vote-By-Mail). [online] Available at: <https://www.ncsl.org/research/elections-and-campaigns/all-mail-elections.aspx> [Accessed 1 August 2020].
(3) Ballotpedia. 2020. All-Mail Voting — Ballotpedia. [online] Available at: <https://ballotpedia.org/All-mail_voting> [Accessed 1 August 2020].
(4) Walsh, C., 2020. To Expand Absentee Voting | The East Hampton Star. [online] Easthamptonstar.com. Available at: <https://www.easthamptonstar.com/government-elections/2020416/to-expand-absentee-voting> [Accessed 1 August 2020].
(5) Ncsl.org. 2020. All-Mail Elections (Aka Vote-By-Mail). [online] Available at: <https://www.ncsl.org/research/elections-and-campaigns/all-mail-elections.aspx> [Accessed 1 August 2020].
(6) Yoder, J., Wu, J., Thompson, D. and Hall, A., 2020. The Neutral Partisan Effects Of Vote-By-Mail: Evidence From County-Level Roll-Outs | SIEPR. [online] Siepr.stanford.edu. Available at: <https://siepr.stanford.edu/research/publications/neutral-partisan-effects-vote-mail-evidence-county-level-roll-outs> [Accessed 1 August 2020].
(7) MyLO. 2020. Pros & Cons Of Mail-In Voting. [online] Available at: <https://my.lwv.org/illinois/chicago/article/pros-cons-mail-voting> [Accessed 2 August 2020].
(8) Sherman, A., 2020. What Is Ballot Harvesting, And Why Is Trump Tweeting About It During An Election-Year Pandemic?. [online] Politifact. Available at: <https://www.politifact.com/article/2020/may/29/what-ballot-harvesting-and-why-trump-tweeting-abou/> [Accessed 2 August 2020].
(9) Fund, J., 2020. Elections: Mail-In Ballots A Recipe For Confusion, Coercion, And Fraud. [online] Nationalreview.com. Available at: <https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/05/elections-mail-in-ballots-a-recipe-for-confusion-coercion-and-fraud/> [Accessed 2 August 2020].
(10) Ross, A., 2020. More Than 18,000 Mail Ballots Not Counted In Florida’S March Presidential Primary. [online] Tampa Bay Times. Available at: <https://www.tampabay.com/news/health/2020/06/29/more-than-18000-mail-ballots-not-counted-in-floridas-march-presidential-preference-primary/> [Accessed 2 August 2020].
(11) Cao, D., 2020. Florida Election Analysis. [online] Healthyelections.org. Available at: <https://healthyelections.org/sites/default/files/2020-06/Florida%20Election%20Memo.pdf> [Accessed 2 August 2020].
(12) Thomas-Lundborg, A. and Alvernaz, L., 2020. This Law Makes Voting Nearly Impossible For Native Americans In Montana. [online] American Civil Liberties Union. Available at: <https://www.aclu.org/news/voting-rights/this-law-makes-voting-nearly-impossible-for-native-americans-in-montana/> [Accessed 2 August 2020].
