Outbreak revives debate on mail-in ballots
OLYMPIA, WASH. » As the coronavirus pandemic knocks primary election after primary election off schedule, Democrats argue the outbreak shows the country needs to move toward one of their longtime goals — widespread voting by mail — to protect the November election.
But Democrats’ hopes for using the crisis to expand voting by mail face firm Republican opposition as well as significant logistical challenges. In some states, it would amount to a major revamp of their voting system just eight months before an election.
Vote-by-mail boosters already lost the first round of the fight. Democrats tried and failed to insert a broad mandate expanding voting by mail in the stimulus bill, a proposal that could cost as much as $2 billion. Instead, the bill included $400 million to help states adjust elections however they see fit before November.
But Democrats in Washington say they will keep pressing the issue, pointing to the increasing number of states that are shifting to mail-in voting for primaries as evidence that the time is right. A poll from the Pew Research Center released Monday found that about two-thirds of Americans would be uncomfortable voting at polling places during the outbreak.
“Practically every single Tuesday, we see another state reacting to their inability to run their election in the middle of this incredible health care pandemic,” said Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, the first state to vote entirely through the mail. He called expanded mail voting “not even a close call.”
Former Vice President Joe Biden, the leading Democratic presidential candidate, joined the push Sunday. “We should be looking to all-mail ballots across the board,” Biden said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “We should be beginning to plan that in each of our states.”
Every state already allows some form of voting by mail, but only six Western states are set up to allow all-mail voting in every county, according to Wendy Underhill at the National Conference of State Legislatures. Meanwhile, 17 states require a formal excuse for voters to get ballots they can mail in, and some have additional requirements. In Alabama, for example, applications for ballots must be returned with a copy of a state ID.
Democrats have long sought to eliminate such rules — either on the state level or by federal mandate
— arguing they are barriers to voting, particularly for minorities, the elderly or the disabled.
While Republicans have backed the trend toward mail voting, the party remains suspicious of widespread use of the method — even though there is evidence that its voters benefit the most from it.
Many Republicans argue that a major expansion of mail-in voting opens up new concerns about fraud and security and that the decisions should be made at the state level rather than be dictated by Congress.
“These people who are saying all these states have to change and vote by mail don’t know what they are talking about,” said John Merrill, Alabama’s Republican secretary of state who has worked to expand mail voting in his home state. “I think every state ought to be able to make up their mind about what to do in elections.”
There are other, practical hurdles. Mail-in voting requires an expensive upfront investment in machines to process mail ballots, poll workers and election judges to be retrained to use the devices and verify voters’ signatures on their envelopes and other wrinkles.