How to vote: The mail-in option, and who should skip it
“Voting in the middle of a pandemic was always going to look different,” said Jen Kirby in Vox.com. To address the health risks, at least 20 states have expanded absentee voting. Meanwhile, twice as many Americans are expected to cast ballots by mail as did in 2016. But that creates certain worries, given the nationwide slowdown in mail delivery caused by cost cutting at the postal service, and the fact that every mail-in ballot has a higher chance of being disqualified (1 in 100) than an in-person vote (1 in 100,000). “The biggest takeaway: Don’t wait. Do everything— everything— early.” Make sure your registration is up to date (at usvotefoundation.org), then establish your plan to vote. Look up your local election website to check deadlines and your polling location. Some states encourage early in-person voting; others allow in-person voting only on Election Day: Nov. 3. If you decide to vote by mail, request and return your ballot as early as you’re allowed to.
Hundreds of thousands of mail-in votes will eventually be disqualified, and you don’t want to be one of them, said Elise Viebeck in The Washington Post. Rejections usually happen when voters miss a deadline or neglect to sign their ballots or envelopes. Errors such as stray pen marks, stains, and tears can cause problems, too. “If you think you made a mistake, do not try to fix it. Ask your local election office what to do.” Some states will compare your signature to an older one on file, so consider whether yours has changed over the years. And if you’re worried about placing your ballot in a mailbox, find out if there are ballot drop boxes available.
If you live in a battleground state, said Jamelle Bouie in The New York Times, think twice before choosing to vote by mail. “There’s no mystery about what President Trump intends to do if he holds a lead on election night.” He has been baselessly disparaging the integrity of mail-in voting all year, and because Joe Biden holds a large polling edge among voters who plan to vote by mail, Trump can be expected to seize any initial chance to claim victory, then use lawyers to have mail-in ballots disqualified over technicalities while he accuses Democrats of trying to steal the race. To help avert such a scenario, said
Jed Shugerman in Time.com, “any voter who is a relatively low health risk should vote in person.” An election decided by mailin ballots is an election in which legal challenges may delay the final results for weeks, possibly even into January, when a vote in the House would decide the winner. At that point, a vote that follows party lines will—because of an arcane rule that gives each state just one vote—likely result in a second Trump term.