Don’t be afraid of voting by mail
Ican understand the fears associated with voting: from being worried your vote won’t count, to the spread of COVID-19, to raucous crowds trying to scare us in lines at the polls.
As a history buff, it reminds of the disenfranchisement from a time when Black slaves and women were not allowed a ballot, or when poll taxes and other dubious “legal” methods were used to stymie the vote. There were also fears of ugly repercussions and direct physical violence, like when night riders in the South committed lynchings with impunity when Black voters dared to express their political will.
The sad truth is that undemocratic ploys still play a part in American elections and are still being used to discourage turnout, particularly from Black voters in presidential and local elections.
The good news is that with voter savvy, we can beat them. That’s why every one of us should make decisions with the expectation that in a democracy, our voices can and will be heard.
I get it — I have gained a new appreciation for the meanings of the word “fear” over the past seven months. I’ve read harrowing accounts of U.S. soldiers from World War II, lived through the mourning and paranoia that followed 9/11, and have been physically threatened by white supremacists carrying weapons. But 2020 is different.
Nothing in my past experience prepared me, and millions of Americans, for the international spread of the coronavirus, which has given a more subtle meaning to fighting an invisible adversary. It’s a new kind of anxiety over the possibility of contracting the virus ourselves or spreading it to others.
We have been sheltering in place for months. We wear face masks. We avoid shaking hands. Restaurants, stores and gyms have been limited to fewer patrons. So of course we are worried about how we will cast our ballots for the Nov. 3 election without having to stand in crowds of people marching to the polls.
“I didn’t want to put myself at risk of getting sick.” Erica Friedle told CNBC, explaining why for the first time in seven years she didn’t vote in Wisconsin’s June primary. “It made me nervous. Who’s going to take care of my daughter?”
Thankfully, in New Mexico, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham understands that it’s her job to ease citizens’ fears. In the June primary, state authorities urged voting by mail. The overall turnout surged.
That surge included me.
The process toward becoming a first-time mail-in voter in New Mexico was seamless. First, I had to email (or mail) a request for an absentee ballot. I filled it out, then mailed it in. A few weeks before the primary, I received my official form.
This ease reaffirmed that an answer to the nation’s voting insecurities could lie in mail-in voting.
Of course, with new voting opportunities came new opportunities to discourage voters by politicians who have to cheat to win. It came in the form of fearmongering about voting by mail.
President Donald Trump and Attorney General William Bar have led the way. Trump raged for months, blathering and tweeting that the system is unreliable. Barr maintains that foreign powers “can take things out of mailboxes.”
The FBI has debunked all conspiracy theories surrounding mail-in voting. A study of election fraud from 2000-2014 investigated billions of votes, but discovered fraud in just 31 credible cases of either in-person or mail-in ballots (an infinitesimally small number). Trump’s own voter integrity commission disbanded without finding plausible evidence of widespread deception.
So now the president has continued his attempts to stymie mail-in voting by blocking funding to the U.S. Postal Service. Which is why we all have to come together across party lines and sustain democracy by encouraging vote-by-mail, same-day registration and early voting.
Trump dismissed these efforts on Fox and Friends, saying, “You’d never have a Republican elected in this country again,” if voting became widely accessible.
Voting rules vary significantly state to state. A few states will automatically send every voter a mail-in ballot. Other states require that whoever wants them must request them. Deadlines for posting a ballot also vary. Wherever you live, the time to research how to vote by mail is now — some states have already started early voting.
Of all the things to be afraid of in 2020, voting by mail is not one of them. Let’s do our part to keep the nation running by using the best, safest and most effective means at hand.