On April 7, 2020, Wisconsin held its primary election while the entire state was under lockdown orders due to COVID-19. Thousands of residents had to stand in line for hours in masks and plastic gloves six feet apart in order to fulfill their basic civic duties. Many lifelong voters reluctantly stayed home for fear of contracting COVID-19. Lawmakers nationwide have begun to see the issues which are likely to arise again in the general election on Nov. 3. It is currently impossible to tell whether COVID-19 will slow down to a manageable rate by the general election in November. However, it is clear that millions of Americans going out to the polls in large crowds, as they did in Wisconsin, will only increase the spread of the dangerous virus. The solution to this may be the vote-by-mail system Oregon implemented in back in 1998.
Vote-by-mail is a well-loved policy because of the convenience and accessibility that it provides. For many, in-person voting conflicts with work or would require them to pay for childcare so they do not vote, and many also cite time constraints as a reason they cannot vote. Some sick or disabled Americans are unable to go to voting locations. Weather and traffic are some of the other obstacles that can prevent potential voters from making it to a polling location. Voter suppression tactics have been well documented in polling places nationwide.
“The polling place has become the single biggest voter suppression device in American politics,” Phil Keisling, former Oregon Secretary of State, said.
According to a National Public Radio [NPR] poll, 64 percent of Americans want to implement a vote-by-mail system. In early May, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed an executive order ensuring every eligible California voter a mail-in ballot for the upcoming election. Oregon, Colorado, Hawaii, Utah and Washington all have all-mail voting. Forty-two states and Washington D.C. give voters the option of requesting an absentee ballot, however, 16 of those require a valid excuse for the request. This option is simply not advertised in the majority of states, and the absentee ballot system is viewed as an afterthought. To guarantee enough resources for the vote-by-mail system it will likely need to be implemented nationally, but President Trump is very opposed to the idea.
“Tremendous potential for voter fraud, and for whatever reason, doesn’t work out well for Republicans,” Trump said on Twitter.
However, Trump’s claims do not have evidence backing them. Out of the 2,068 cases of voter fraud reported by the News 21 database between 2000 and 2012, only 419 had anything to do with mail-in ballots, and none of those cases had any effect on the outcome of the elections. Fraud using mail-in ballots can only change a vote at a time, whereas voting machines are susceptible to hacking and technological errors that have the potential to result in much larger shifts in the results of an election. In Oregon’s voting system, voters also have the option of taking their ballot to a secure drop site if they would rather not mail their ballot in.
The notion that a mail-in system would favor Democrats has also been disproven. A recent study conducted by Stanford University’s Democracy and Polarization Lab found there was “no discernible effect on party vote shares or the partisan share of the electorate,” after comparing counties with and without vote-by-mail systems in the same states.
This system just gives more people the chance to vote, further strengthening democracy. The idea of depriving large groups of people the opportunity to vote just because there is a chance that it would result in more votes for another party is fundamentally undemocratic. As a civic unit, the end goal is to provide an equal voice to all who are eligible.
When Oregon implemented vote-by-mail, voter turnout increased by 10 percent. An analysis of Colorado’s vote-by-mail system, run by political science researchers Charlotte Hill, Jacob Grumbach, Adam Bonica and Hakeem Jefferson, found a turnout boost of more than nine points and found that youth turnout shot up by an astounding 16 points after implementing vote-by-mail. Many underrepresented groups saw dramatic increases in turnout as well. Households with less than $10,000 in wealth saw a 10-point increase, African-Americans saw a 13 point turnout increase, Latino voters had a 10-point boost and Asian-Americans an 11 point boost.
Some may claim that such a system would be expensive to set up. While it may demand an increase in cost during the first year of implementation, it will ultimately save states quite a bit of money in the long-term. Oregon saved 30 percent after transitioning to a vote-by-mail system due to the high costs of installing voting machines, temporary staffing, and other logistical costs.
The goal of democracy is to give everyone a voice, not just those who can afford to take the day off work, send their kids to daycare, stand out in the rain for hours or risk their lives in the middle of a global pandemic. Performing one’s civic duty to vote should be made as easy as possible. States will likely not be able to fully transition to the new system by November, but this election is a good indication that the United States needs national vote-by-mail as soon as possible.
