Mail-in Voting and the Future of American Democracy

August 12, 2020 By Jon N. Hall

It’s been twenty years since the Bush-Gore election recount debacle in Florida with its chads, butterfly ballots, lawsuits, delay, and uncertainty. Since 2000, the World Trade Center has been replaced with a gleaming new tower, babies have been born and grown into adulthood, smartphones have been invented and become something on the order of essential bodily appendages, and despite all that the supposedly greatest democracy of all time still has backwards easily-corrupted election systems. After twenty years, this lingering situation is either a colossal failure of government or it is deliberate. And since elections are conducted by the states, the guilty party in all this is… the states.

The current stink in our banana republic electoral systems is mail-in voting. In 2007, Rep. Susan Davis introduced the Universal Right to Vote by Mail Act to Congress where it languishes. Even so, at National Conference of State Legislatures we learn that as of March this year, 26 states already have some form of mail-in voting, with five of those states conducting all their elections by mail. On August 1 in the New York Post, Michael Goodwin outlined some of the logistical nightmares of mail-in voting. Also worth checking out is this short video of the leonine Liz Wheeler: 5 Problems with Universal Mail-In Voting.

President Trump has expressed considerable skepticism about voting by mail, and he’s right to do so. The central issue with mail-in ballots is perhaps the same as with our other types of ballots: they work off corrupted voter registries. And keep in mind, these registries were created and are maintained by the states.

One big problem with all voter registration systems is that the states aren’t verifying that only eligible citizens can vote. The states tell us that they’re vetting voters for citizenship. But that’s not true, as many of the states automatically register voters at their departments of motor vehicles when drivers, including illegal aliens, get their licenses.

By April of 2020, 19 states, including some of the most populous, had automatic voter registration, according to Ballotpedia (their map is helpful.) What’s disturbing is that several of the states that have automatic registration also have mail-in voting..........To Read More.....