What's all the fuss about mail-in ballots?
Due to COVID-19, many more voters in #Election2020 are expected to cast their votes by mail.
There has been a lot of focus on mail-in ballots this election season, and you may be wondering why that is. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, many more voters are expected to cast their votes over the mail rather than in person at a polling place, and this is causing some turmoil as states prepare for this rather unique election.
More than 80% of voters in America will be eligible to receive a ballot in the mail this election, which is an unprecedented amount. Many states have been loosening their eligibility requirements in order to mail a ballot, and accept fear of COVID-19 as a valid excuse. Only 5 states (IN, LA, MS, TN, and TX) are not accepting this as an excuse. Some states such as California and New Jersey are even going as far as to automatically send ballots to registered voters in the mail. In Connecticut, registered voters are automatically receiving an application to apply for a mail-in ballot — also known as an absentee ballot.
Of course, there are some potential issues with mail-in ballots. During the primaries, more than 500,000 mail-in ballots nationwide were rejected across 23 states due to arriving too late or some sort of voter error, which raises the issue of people’s votes not counting in this election for similar reasons. Because of the massive amount of mail-in ballots, it is also likely that it might take a week after Election Day to finish counting them as they arrive. As a result, some states such as Wisconsin are allowing ballots to be counted up to 6 days after the election.
President Trump has also been casting doubt on the legitimacy of mail in voting and claims that there will be massive amounts of voter fraud, but many officials say mail-in voting is secure and reliable.
The Supreme Court is also dealing with lawsuits about mail-in ballots. Recently, the SCOTUS has made several rulings against expanding access to voting as a result of the pandemic: it blocked a ruling in Alabama that would have eased requirements on mail-in voting like including a copy of ID and a voter affidavit and denied Texans access to vote-by-mail unless they are over 65, are out of the state or have a sickness or physical condition preventing them from voting. This means that some people in these states could lose their votes, as this makes it harder to successfully mail in a ballot.
There are other groups of people who are prevented from voting. In Florida, felons are unable to vote unless they pay government fines that can be up to $1,000. In Connecticut, the more than 3,000 people who are on parole are not allowed to vote.
Voter suppression is an ongoing concern, which could have a significant effect come November.