Absentee voting
Considering the US Postal System’s reliability when it comes to your votes reliability when it comes to your vote.
Absentee voting is the process where you have a ballot sent to you, so you can still vote despite not being able to go to the polls on election day. This year due to COVID-19, many states and voters are going to be voting this way. Voters receive their ballot via mail, and once they make their selections, they have the option to send it back through mail.
This raises two big questions. How reliable is the mailing process? And, is it worth it? Think about this: No one should have to worry about whether or not your vote is going to count. Being able to vote is a right Americans have and should not be jeopardized because mail isn’t handled properly.
“One important message we’re pushing out is that we have had mail delays,” Mrs. Debbie Binder, West Bloomfield’s Clerk, said. “That’s a very real situation. We’re telling people if you’re going to return your ballot by mail, do it early,” Mrs. Binder said. She already sent out double the amount of absentee ballots there was in 2016, according to a New York Times article.
CBS news did an experiment, mailing 100 mock ballots to test the reliability of the United States Postal service.
“So out of our 100 ballots, 97 arrived, which sounds pretty good unless you consider the fact that, that means three people who tried to vote by mail in our mock election were in fact disenfranchised by mail,’’ Tony Dekoupil, a news reporter for CBS News, said. According to CBS news, when interviewing citizens, the majority of them said that they don’t trust the postal service. They don’t want their ballot to be lost or disenfranchised by the mail.
“The absentee ballot—they have been doing that for years, and that’s how I have always voted, mainly. I am very confident using it. I don’t mail it, I drop it off at the township clerks,” Mr. Gary Etter, a US History teacher at St. Joseph High School, said.
Mr. Etter was able to share great information on the difference between an absentee ballot and a mail-in ballot. Due to COVID-19, each state has their own rules and regulations about how the voting process will work for this election.
“I have full confidence in the system here in Michigan. What does concern me is about the mail-in ballots. Will the post office be able to handle all that?” Mr. Etter said, when asked about mail-in voting.
If someone is at high risk or has multiple concerns about Coronavirus, the mail-in option is going to be the safest way to vote. You subtract the social interactions out of the whole process. Other options include receiving an absentee ballot and then handing it in by hand, early voting, fax or email as long as there is a signature, according to michigan.gov. The other option is to go to the booth and vote normally on election day. All these options allow people to vote, but do it to their level of comfort and safety.
When reviewing all the risks with mail-in voting, the most reliable way would be to participate in early voting, delivering it in by hand, or going to the booths and voting. This way you don’t run the risk of your vote being mishandled. It’s a privilege to be able to vote; no one wants that to be taken advantage of.