MAIL-IN MADNESS
IF Americans are losing confidence in elections, don’t blame Russian hackers. The damage is self-inflicted. A week after polls closed, Americans still don’t know who won major races: gubernatorial races in Florida and Georgia, a Florida Senate seat and several House contests. Candidates who conceded on Election Night are backtracking and demanding “every vote be counted,” as late-arriving ballots change the tallies.
Blame the uncertainty on overuse of mail-in ballots and of provisional balloting by people who lacked ID, didn’t appear on registration rolls or voted outside the county where they live. These accommodations create opportunities for incompetence and trickery by election officials and turn Election Day into a teaser for the ultimate outcome, decided by lawyers and judges.
Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) appeared to win the hotly contested Senate race on Election Night. But his lead shrank from some 56,000 votes to a mere 12,600, and he’s filing lawsuits alleging dirty tricks in heavily Democratic Broward and Palm Beach counties.
Georgia’s Brian Kemp (R), who claimed victory in the gubernatorial race with a 60,000-vote lead on Election Night, is accusing his opponent, Democrat Stacey Abrams, of “making up numbers.”
This circus can be corrected without compromising access to the polls, the reason mail-in ballots and provisional ballots were devised.
Mail-in votes invite delays and mischief. The American Civil Liberties Union reports that in the 2012 and 2016 Florida general elections voters casting mail-in ballots were 10 times more likely to have their vote not count than those who voted in person. The biggest reason: failure to sign the ballot envelope or a signature that didn’t match voter-registration files.
Florida Sen. Bill Nelson (D), struggling to beat Scott, announced Monday he’s suing to drop the requirement that the mail-in ballots have a verifiable signature. “If we are successful that will add thousands of additional ballots that have so far gone uncounted.” Trouble is, they won’t all be valid.
In Arizona, the Senate race wasn’t called for Democrat Kyrsten Sinema until Monday night, six days after polls closed. The delay was caused by 320,000 mail-in ballots dropped off on Election Day. Each ballot had to have its signature verified against voter registration records — a timeconsuming process that also gives election workers wide discretion and opportunities for abuse.
Arizona and other states should require mail-in ballots to arrive ahead of Election Day. States should also strictly limit the use of mail-in ballots to those truly unable to go to the polls, including the military, disabled and students away at college.
Oregon, Washington and Colorado have swung in the opposite direction, relying entirely on voting by mail. Don’t buy the argu- ment they’re increasing voter participation. The liberal Pew Research Center’s research shows mail-in voting depresses turnout, as parties do less to mobilize the electorate and create Election Day excitement.
In Georgia, the problem is thousands of provisional ballots cast by people who couldn’t show they’re entitled to vote. Federal law requires they be allowed to vote provisionally. But Georgia law says if their identity can’t be confirmed within three days, the ballots become invalid. Gubernatorial candidate Abrams and the group Common Cause sued to have these invalid votes counted. On Monday, a federal judge met them halfway by extending the deadline.
Back in Florida, Brenda Snipes, Broward County’s elections supervisor, was caught mixing invalid provisional ballots into the pile with valid ones.
What’s the lesson from these messes in Florida, Georgia and Arizona? The soaring increase in mail-in and provisional voting is putting our democracy at risk. Imagine the damage in the 2020 presidential election if the outcome is uncertain and suspect in numerous states.
Some day, facial-recognition technology will solve the problem of identifying voters. Until then, states should tighten their rules and encourage voters to cast their ballots the old, reliable way: in person at their polling place.
Americans want voting to be easy, but also honest. The pendulum has swung too far toward easy.