Expanded mail voting was an electoral success

It will take weeks before analysts can seriously evaluate the impact of mail-in voting in last Tuesday’s general election, but it’s unlikely that future elections will ever be the same. Nationwide, Americans cast 65 million votes by mail — nearly double the number from the 2016 election, and around 40 percent of the total balloting. Vote by mail is here to stay. Even before voting had started, the Trump campaign cast doubt on the veracity of such balloting, which state officials had expanded in light of the COVID-19 stay-at-home restrictions. He continues to make baseless claims that his loss was due to liberalized mail-voting rules.

The president’s lawsuits in various states thus far show little evidence of systemic problems — beyond anecdotes that mar every type of voting in every election. Some Republican legislatures had mandated that mail votes be counted last, which created a false sense of impropriety as totals shifted in a Democratic direction in some ( but not all) states.

That’s not a sign of wrongdoing. The president had dissuaded his supporters from voting this way, which tamped down the GOP mail vote.

Also, final counting took place in Philadelphia and Atlanta — Democratic strongholds, where votes would of course shift away from the GOP. Given all their focus on the matter, we’re surprised Republicans didn’t come up with more compelling fraud allegations.

Here in California, mailin voting worked remarkably well. We opposed Gov. Gavin Newsom’s executive order requiring the state to send mail ballots to registered voters. We like the concept, but believed that only the Legislature has authority to pass this (which it later did). California voters can even track their ballots — an innovation that all states should follow.

Republicans actually benefited from the expanded voting process. They gained some congressional seats. On statewide initiatives, the final votes closely mirrored Republican positions, as voters rejected tax hikes, rent control and affirmative action.

All elections have problems, which is the result of government inefficiency and incompetence. We see nothing, however, that undermines our initial prediction that a boisterous vote-by-mail system is good for democracy.

That’s not a sign of wrongdoing.

The president had dissuaded his supporters from voting this way, which tamped down the GOP mail vote. Also, final counting took place in Philadelphia and Atlanta — Democratic strongholds, where votes would of course shift away from the GOP. Given all their focus on the matter, we’re surprised Republicans didn’t come up with more compelling fraud allegations.