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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsVoting by Mail Could Be What States Need. But Can They Pull It Off?
WASHINGTON When Colorados 3.5 million voters help select a president this fall, their choice will be made almost entirely by mail, via ballots in postage-paid envelopes dropped off in mailboxes or, more commonly, in bins scattered statewide.
Not so in Alabama. As the law now stands, all voters must cast their ballots on Election Day, at their designated polling places, unless they vote absentee. And getting an absentee ballot is so hard that fewer than 55,000 of 1.7 million voters cast one in the last election.
Election experts, voting rights advocates and a chorus of Democrats are urging states to switch as much as is possible to voting by mail for the November election. Their aim is to ensure that the vote is not plagued by the same nightmare scenario that occurred this week in Wisconsin of voters in masks and gloves going to polls or staying home amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The Republican governor of New Hampshire, Chris Sununu, endorsed the idea on Thursday, saying the state would hold its election by mail in November if health risks were still an issue. The Republican secretary of state in Iowa, Paul Pate, raised the same prospect this week. Elsewhere, Republican opposition, like court filings and President Trumps baseless charge that voting by mail is riddled with fraud, leaves the future of that effort in doubt.
https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=post&forum=1002
Wounded Bear
(58,706 posts)jimfields33
(15,948 posts)I dont trust it right now. Florida finding bins of absentee ballots in southern Florida in 2018. In 2020, Michigan finding hundreds without post marks and binds not delivered. How can we just so easily think this is awesome? I find it troubling.
ornotna
(10,807 posts)get to almost 2000 posts?
jimfields33
(15,948 posts)Do you not care that thousands did not vote? In Florida of all places? How did you get to one post?
ornotna
(10,807 posts)Bet you wish you could say that, amirite.
jimfields33
(15,948 posts)No other explanation for you stance on missed votes. I wonder if you really are that unaware of news. Maybe you dont know these cases or dont care.
ornotna
(10,807 posts)If that's your take away.
Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin
(108,192 posts)Doesn't require a postage stamp.
Wounded Bear
(58,706 posts)Celerity
(43,498 posts)Flaleftist
(3,473 posts)Perhaps, security to guard the boxes during the drop off period would be prudent.
Blue_true
(31,261 posts)I think that putting dropoff boxes at Post Offices, community gathering locations like libraries and vehicle registration offices, and making it a federal felony to tamper with them, would work. A person who damages ballots should be pursued relentlessly and when found, tried and imprisoned for at least two decades without parole or pardon.
If the things above are done then the nation could have a safe, effective vote by mail system where everyone that is eligible can easily vote.
napi21
(45,806 posts)this virus still exists t the end of Summer we will vote by mail in November too. He's a Repub. Governor so maybe theres some hope of getting the rest of the States to do it as well.
Blue_true
(31,261 posts)I don't know what the constraints are though, because I do in person early voting normally. I believe what should happen is every registered voter should be sent a vote by mail ballot, the simple fact that those people are registered means that they have passed the screens that states like Florida and Georgia throw up to keep some people from voting, so there is no rational reason why people on the registration roles should not automatically get a mail-in ballot.
napi21
(45,806 posts)& llet the voter decide if they wat to still vote in person, they just don't mail in their ballot would fly with the Pubs? Of course, any in person votes require poll workers and we all saw what happened I Wisconsin.
madville
(7,412 posts)In election years I just call or stop by the county supervisor of elections office and request to have a ballot mailed that year for all elections.
You do have to make the effort to do that though and you have to affix your own postage on the return envelope. I personally think Floridas setup will suppress the younger vote if in-person voting is still affected by all this come November.
VarryOn
(2,343 posts)I just hope we don't have to wait two weeks for their results.
I'm all for mail-in voting. I just dont like the requirement of a postmark no later than Election Day. I'd prefer a rule where the ballot must be received by election officials by close of polls on Election Day.
Blue_true
(31,261 posts)All that will be counted should be in the hands of Registrars no later than the end of the day before Election Day, hell, I am even willing to have the end day be the end of the Friday before Election Day. The ballots must be sent out to voters no later than a month after the General Election races are all set.
There should be convenient ballot drop off boxes that have working cameras on them that are sending images to storage every hour. Tampering with votes in the boxes should be a federal felony punishable by no less that 20 years in prison. A mail-in ballot should automatically be sent to every registered voter.
Locutusofborg
(525 posts)from what it was in 2016 because of vote by mail. 19,813 ballots were cast by today in the mail-in primary. In the 2016 caucuses, 10,610 Alaskan Democrats voted.
Skittles
(153,193 posts)but WILL they
Hoyt
(54,770 posts)Alabamas is a little tougher, but a new excuse could be added, or a relaxed interpretation of this valid excuse should work:
IS ILL OR HAS A PHYSICAL DISABILITY that prevents a trip to the polling place.
Roland99
(53,342 posts)Retrograde
(10,156 posts)Here, our ballots can be mailed in (and more counties are going to postage paid envelopes), dropped off at the county registrar, dropped off at most city halls, or dropped off at a number of voting centers in each county prior to election day.
It's a solvable problem - if states want to solve it.
SouthernCal_Dem
(852 posts)That's what I do every time I vote.
Fill out the ballot I get in the mail and drop it off at a polling place.
Easy peasy.
Voting should be easy. California makes it easy.
I feel bad for citizens in states like Wisconsin who are forced to jump through hoops just to exercise their right to vote.
It's insane.
Blue_true
(31,261 posts)Get a system for fair redistricting on the ballot for everyone to vote on. Republican in Michigan know that they are in trouble, they can either change to represent EVERY citizen of Michigan or vanish - that is the way it should be.
Response to SouthernCal_Dem (Reply #23)
elocs This message was self-deleted by its author.
sarcasmo
(23,968 posts)Blue_true
(31,261 posts)The USPS is a business that like all other big businesses, has been seriously harmed by the corona virus, the difference is that the Post Office is a vital business that touches the lives of every American.
Democrats must stop any bill that doesn't have USPS funding from passing.
Nululu
(842 posts)Blue_true
(31,261 posts)When states like Oregon, Washington State, California, Colorado went to vote by mail, the prospects for republicans got worse. Republicans count on a small number of people voting to hold office, it is a very much anti-democracy mindset that they have horned to their advantage. They will go down kicking and screaming to prevent vote by mail from becoming widely used.
Blue_true
(31,261 posts)I prefer in person early voting, but in these times, that is unwise. If states that don't have vote by mail wanted to, they have model states that they can talk to, California, Colorado, Oregon, Washington State.
Republican led states don't want all vote by mail because republicans know that would end their reign. But true patriots want people to vote and they tailor their message and if they win, their governance toward getting more people involved.
Response to Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin (Original post)
elocs This message was self-deleted by its author.