SHOW THEM THESE FOUR BENEFITS
There are four significant benefits to having people vote by mail in upcoming elections during the Covid 19 pandemic. Getting people to change the habit of voting in person, on election day, can be hard. Stressing the following FOUR BENEFITS can make it a little easier.
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| Illustration by Joan Savitt |
The first benefit is that voting by mail is SAFE. Safe not only from disease, but also from fraud.
In addition to being an illustrator, I am also a voting warden in a local precinct outside of Boston. Our last in-person election was the Massachusetts Presidential Primary on March 3. I kept wondering if my poll workers were safe, as they had the greatest exposure to people who could potentially have had Covid 19. Most poll workers are older (often retirees). I have had people in their 90's work for me. Clearly, they are in a high risk category. And elections in my Town are held in gymnasiums and a library. It is easier to pick up the virus inside one of these spaces than outside of it.
We had a Town election scheduled for March 17 - which was postponed and will now take place on June 13. This one will take place mostly through absentee balloting. (As of 5/25/20, the Attorney General of Massachusetts has only authorized "no excuse" absentee voting through June 30, 2020.)
Some worry that voter fraud will increase with mail-in voting. Research has not shown that to be the case. On May 20, 2020, Amber Phillips wrote in the Washington Post "There is no evidence of widespread fraud in either regular voting or mail-in voting... But there is not any evidence of routine or even statistically significant fraud in the five states that do all-mail elections, election experts say."
On May 15, 2020, Pam Fessler writing for NPR wrote that Kentucky's Republican Secretary of State Michael Adams said "the presumption that absentee voting is less secure is frustrating because Kentucky has safeguards in place to protect against fraud."
The second benefit to voters is EASE. Rather than taking time out of what is usually a work day to vote, and maybe stand in the rain, snow or hot sun, you can vote from home, as soon as you have your ballot.
The third benefit is CONVENIENCE. Vote whenever you want. Spend an hour looking over the ballot and ballot questions with a cup of coffee in the comfort of your own home. Do it on the weekend - in your pajamas, if you like!
The fourth benefit is the potential for your municipality to SAVE MONEY. When most of the voting is done by mail, a city or town does not have to rent as many places to hold the election and does not need to hire as many poll workers. Not as many ballots may need to be printed. In my Town, a police officer is hired for each polling place, and works a thirteen hour shift. Dinner is provided for all workers. These costs, although not eliminated entirely, will probably decrease.
Initially, costs may go up if high speed tabulating machines are purchased. The data, though, seems to suggest that costs will go down. A PEW Charitable Trust report from March 22, 2016, titled "Colorado Voting Reforms: Early Results" states "In fact, one study of the switch to all mail voting in Colorado concluded that major expenses fell by 40%, to about $10 per voter from $16 per voter."
Encouraging people to vote by mail is so important during the pandemic. Publicizing the four benefits of mail-in voting, Safety, Ease, Convenience and Cost Savings can help election officials make a strong case for doing so.
