PRO: Mail-in ballots are safe and secure
On average, voter turnout during the U.S. general election is around 60% of all eligible voters. With the COVID-19 pandemic still raging on, this number may drop as voters choose their health over voting, leading to an unrepresentative election. Even without a pandemic, many eligible voters choose not to vote for reasons ranging from not having the time to facing obstacles of voter suppression. Mail-in ballots are an effective alternative to and solve many of the problems associated with in-person voting.
According to a New York Times Article, as of the 2020 election, nine states and Washington D.C. automatically send mail-in ballots prior to the election, 34 states provide mail-in ballots without the voter having to cite an excuse and nine states require voters to cite an excuse other than COVID-19 to request a ballot. 18 of the states that send ballots or ballot applications saw an increase in voter turnout during the primaries compared to the 2016 election. This increase in voter turnout is more crucial than ever with the pandemic still threatening the safety of many Americans.
Mail-in ballots make voting significantly easier since there is no need to take off work and stand in polling lines for half a day. They also ensure that social distancing and safety guidelines are followed, helping to reduce the spread of COVID-19. Further, states would be able to save a considerable amount of money, without the need to invest in polling places, workers, and machinery. Mail-in ballots are both cost and time effective.
Even before COVID-19, many voters were unable to vote due to passive-aggressive voter suppression laws. According to a Conversation article, some states have implemented voter ID laws that were created to curb the non-existent problem of illegal voting. Laws such as these discourage certain groups of people from presenting themselves to vote, whether out of fear or lack of having a proper ID.
The main concern brought up about mail-in ballots is the possibility of mass voter fraud. This excuse is quoted by President Trump as well as many of his followers. However, according to a BBC article, there has been no past evidence of mass ballot fraud and voter fraud itself is a rare phenomenon. There are also a number of provisions in place to prevent impersonation and guarantee that a signature is verified on ballots.
In comparison, the polling machines currently used in many states are incredibly old or have decade old vulnerabilities, according to a WIRED article. Current voting systems can be easily compromised and progress in replacing or repairing these machines is very slow. States need funding to fix these issues before the 2020 election, but at this rate, it would be better to rely on mail-in votes.
President Donald Trump and other Republicans have also argued that mail-in votes favor Democrats. Once again, this is a fraudulent claim as mail-in votes favor neither political parties. It only provides more access to voting in areas that are disproportionately underrepresented during elections, such as those in rural areas or in a lower socioeconomic status.
Many Republicans reason that mail-in ballots advantage Democrats due to an anticipated increase in voter turnout for minorities who conventionally vote Democrat. However, according to a New York Times article, this is not necessarily true as many poor white voters who conventionally vote Republican would also gain increased access to voter ballots. Overall, both the Republican and Democratic Parties would receive a boost in their voter base, resulting in a fairer, more representative election.
States must at least provide the option of mail-in ballots to all their registered voters. From there, the voter can themself decide if they prefer to use the ballot or do in-person voting. Mail-in ballots must become the standard, as only then can we ensure that every election is a fair and just election.
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CON: Mail-in ballots are not safe and secure
If you need a reason to not vote by mail, then continue reading. If you don’t care enough to know about the difference between absentee ballots and mail-in ballots, what the disadvantages are in voting by mail, and politics in general, good for you. Enjoy a cookie as the rest of us will discuss and participate in one of the most important controversial issues here. As for the rest of you who stay, learn something.
If you plan on voting using mail-in ballots, don’t. Chances are that your vote might just get rejected. The rejection rate on mail-in ballots discussed below is only counted from the primary election, with there being speculation of having triple the amount be rejected in the general election. This is actually one of the many problems that contribute to lost and uncounted votes, even under the best of circumstances.
This argument, by the way, does not argue against absentee ballots. Absentee ballots are, in fact, very different from mail-in ballots as you need to request and state clearly, with evidence, why you need it. Seeing how prominently absentee ballots are used by the military and serve everyone who needs it, it must be made clear that this is an argument as to why we should not have universal mail-in ballots.
Mail-in ballots bring out inherently flawed results. As the State Board of Elections deputy administrator in Maryland, Nikki Charlson, stated in an article by WUSA 9, “The numbers, while considered low by state elections authorities, are an indication that voting by mail brings a higher risk of errors that can disqualify ballots.”
Charlson continued “that in-person voting results in much lower error rates, while the vote-by-mail primary resulted in higher than normal participation rates.” Most of the concern for ballot rejections seem to be happening in battleground states. These states are of top concern seeing as how, according to The New York Times, Michigan was won by Donald Trump with less than 11,000 votes, and again in Pennsylvania by fewer than 45,000 votes.
It’s not only just the deputy administrator from Maryland who shows concern for this problem. “It is the number one thing that keeps me up at night — the idea that voters will do everything they can to ensure their ballot is returned on time and the system will still fail them,” Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson said in an article by Tampa Bay News on Sept. 8.
The system here that is implied to fail us is the United States Postal Service. The most common way for mail-in ballots to be rejected is a failure to be delivered on time, whether it be the fault of the voter or the mail provider. In Michigan and Pennsylvania, election officials are not allowed to check until election day if all the ballots arrived on time or not.
To help demonstrate the scope of how much this could affect the election, whether insignificant or not, let me try to create an example of what could happen in, let’s say, Pennsylvania, for a start. The voter turnout out of the total 2016’s voting-age population for the general election, which was 245,502,000, was 136,669,276 or 55.67% according to the University of California, Santa Barbra’s American Presidency Project.
Pennsylvania had at least a voter turnout of 1.57 million during the June primaries. Now if we factor in the same voter turnout of the general election, with the same 1.4% rejection rate as the 2020 primary in Pennsylvania alone, then an estimated 43,000 mail ballots could be rejected this November. That is only in one state that is barely considered big by most people. In Wisconsin, Donald Trump won with roughly 23,000 votes.
While we are in a pandemic, it seems awfully complicated to require every state to manage mail-in ballots for every single American. This was Congressman Rodney Davis of Illinois’ line of thinking as he said at the remote hearing for the House Administration subcommittee on elections on June 11, “I support states increasing capacity for mail-in voting but to suggest every state can dramatically increase that capacity is ridiculous.”
If you want to vote by mail, then by all means, no one is stopping you. However, all the information that is presented here is to inform you of every precaution that you might face come election day. Each voter can vote any way they like, as long as they vote smart and freely and they trust with absolute certainty that their vote is being heard—something which mail-in ballots could never do.
Articles by Athira Nair of Richard Montgomery High School and Jose Salinas-Morales of Watkins Mill High School
Photo by Anna Lee of Richard Montgomery High School