Accessible Voting in a Time of Isolation

By Karla Vega

At a time like this, with COVID-19 threatening the lives of everyone who lives in this country, the best thing that everyone can do to prevent further spread is to stay home. Now, some people may not be able to stay home, due to their jobs or other significant reasons. As 2020 is an election year, some may be wondering how they will be able to vote, if they are not allowed to leave their homes or be in a public area with multiple people. The answer is simple, vote from home! Mail in ballots are easy to fill out, and are just as valid as the ballots that you fill out in a polling place. As simple as voting by mail may be, the discussion about using the vote-by-mail system for the Presidential election, should the quarantine still be in effect, is less simple.

Recently, Democrats have been discussing plans to add new voting requirements to make voting safe during this time of social-distancing (Hulse). Having large groups of people crowding polling places is not something that can happen today, and it may not be something that is advised come November. Democrats want changes like extended early voting and nationwide vote-by-mail to be instituted so that all voters can cast their vote, without being stopped by the quarantine or other circumstances that may stop them from doing so (Hulse). The extended early voting would give voters 20 days to go into polling places, and the main hope for this proposed change is that the amount of people at polling places will remain at a minimum, thanks to the extended voting time (Hulse). Their insistence for the implementation of voting changes is best summed up by this quote from Senator Amy Klobuchar, “we can’t allow our democracy to go down the tubes because this administration did not prepare for this pandemic… We have to come up with the best practices and make sure that everyone can still vote” (Hulse).

Some states, like Colorado, Washington, and Oregon, already have voting by mail as their main voting method, and it has increased their voter turnout (Hulse). Those states, as well as Utah and Hawaii, have ballots sent to their registered voters without them having to request one, and in California, as well as Arizona, voters can register themselves onto a “permanent list of mail voters” (Epstein and Saul). Nebraska allows voting by mail in small counties of less than 10,000 people, and allows the local government to send mail in ballots to their registered voters, but does not allow that in areas with large populations (Epstein and Saul). Even before this pandemic, voting by mail has been an accessible way to vote for those unable to make it to polling places. For those who were perhaps too busy with work or family life to stop by a polling place to vote, or perhaps those who could not leave their homes, whether due to a disability, or because of a lack of transportation, vote-by-mail has been the only way for their votes to be counted. Despite the positive impact that vote-by-mail would have on the upcoming election, and how it could prevent the further spread of COVID-19, some Republicans are in opposition of it, the chief opposer being the Commander in Chief himself.

One of the qualms that Republicans have with instituting nationwide vote-by-mail is that voting has always been more of a state government ruled affair, rather than one ruled by the federal government. Roy Blunt, a Republican Senator and state elections official in Missouri, sees this move encouraged by Democrats as a “federal takeover of the election process itself”, and one that he could not support (Hulse). This fear is understandable, as many people want state powers to stay separate from federal powers, but in the case of a pandemic, I think that exceptions should be considered. An objection to the proposed changes that makes much less sense is, unsurprisingly, from none other than Trump. Trump has been falsely claiming that voting by mail will lead to vote fraud, and will work against Republican voters. He said, “mail ballots are very dangerous for this country because of cheaters. They go collect them. They are fraudulent in many cases… they should have voter ID, by the way” (Saul and Epstein). In reality however, this is not the case. There are very few cases of voting fraud, and voter turnout actually increases when vote-by-mail is used. Trump has also claimed that vote-by-mail will put Republicans at a disadvantage, which is also untrue. When referring back to Nebraska, the small counties that are allowed to give out mail-in ballots are largely Republican, whereas the largely populated areas that are not allowed to give out mail-in ballots are largely Democratic (Epstein and Saul). In any case, vote-by-mail has hardly favored one party over another. Trump has also admitted that “in March he voted absentee by mail in his home state of Florida” (Epstein and Saul); so his rejection of vote-by-mail does seem a bit strange, especially because he uses that system himself.

Although a nationwide movement to have everyone vote-by-mail is highly unlikely, I hope that should the quarantine (or something like it) still be happening come the day of the presidential election, that you all consider your safety, the safety of your families, the safety of your friends, and vote-by-mail.

Epstein, Reid J., and Stephanie Saul. “Does Vote-by-Mail Favor Democrats? No. It’s a False Argument by Trump.” New York Times, April 10, 2020. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/10/us/politics/vote-by-mail.html?searchResultPosition=10.

Hulse, Carl. “As Pandemic Imperils Elections, Democrats Clash with Trump on Voting Changes.” New York Times, April 8, 2020. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/08/us/politics/coronavirus-2020-presidential-election.html.

Saul, Stephanie, and Reid J. Epstein. “Trump is pushing a False Argument on Vote-by-Mail Fraud. Here Are the Facts.” New York Times, April 11, 2020. https://www.nytimes.com/article/mail-in-voting-explained.html?searchResultPosition=7.