The presidential election is likely to come down to six major state elections, allowing all voters to apply for ballots.
Arizona, Florida, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, where President Trump
Donald John TrumpCEO of parent company National Enquirer steps out Biden that he would shut down US in the midst of pandemic when scientists said it was necessary. Warren is calling for board members of the Postal Service to fire DeJoy or MORE and Democratic nominee Joe Biden
Joe BidenBiden says he will close US amid pandemic as scientists say it was necessary Harris laughs at Trump’s attacks in interview: ‘They’ are designed to distract Biden, Democrats get bail for fundraising during digital convention MORE fight for every vote, all face challenges in trying to get email votes ready amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Not all of them have the infrastructure to experience the high volume of post-in-ballots they are expecting, however. Problems include the shortage of interview staff and the fact that the deadline on the books to submit a mail does not necessarily coincide with the ability of the postal service to deliver the vote on time.
President Trump, who won all six states in 2016, has repeatedly criticized mail-in voting, suggesting it leads to more fraud. There is no evidence that voting through post-fraud increases, but Trump’s repeated attacks have turned it into a more partisan issue.
Here is where the six swing states stand on mail-in votes.
Florida
Voters in Florida have been able to vote absent since 2002 without having to quote an apology. Trump, who changed his residency from New York to Florida last year, has used the Florida mail-in voting system.
Florida Secretary of State Laurel M. Lee (R) told reporters Tuesday that voter turnout this week was “higher than average.” She said personal voting was “light to medium” with an increase in mail-in votes compared to previous elections.
The increase in voting for mailing in went hand in hand with early preliminary results for most of the disputed primary races.
“Today was not the finish,” Lee said. “We still have a lot of work to do to prepare for the November presidential election, to make sure voters register and are aware of their voting options.”
Florida has more experience with mail voting than some other swing states. In 2018, 30.9 percent of voters in Florida voted by mail, according to the Electoral Assistance Commission.
Electoral officials in Florida will not start counting polling stations until elections close on election day.
Trump won the 29 election votes in Florida in 2016, but recent polls put Biden a little ahead.
Arizona
The majority of voters in Arizona have already mailed in previous elections, making them accustomed to the process, according to Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs (D).
She announced in March that the state would send mail-in voting applications to any registered voter who is not already on the state’s permanent ballot by mailing list.
“We are fortunate in Arizona that we have had a long-term e-mail vote, so the infrastructure for mass voting by e-mail is already in place,” Hobbs said at a Tuesday webinar hosted by the Democratic Union of Secretaries of State.
According to Hobbs, 78 percent of voters in the mid-2018s voted to vote early. In the August primaries, 88 percent did so. She expects November to also vote early and overall turnout will increase.
“We really need to be on the lookout for information on how this system works,” Hobbs said.
Like virtually every other state this election cycle, Arizona has to deal with a potential shortage of poll workers and volunteers. In previous years, poll workers could only work polls in the province in which they live, although the state has amended its laws to employ permit workers in the state.
Election officials in Arizona begin counting two weeks before Election Day.
Trump won Arizona’s 11 election votes in 2016 by 4 percentage points in 2016, although Biden narrowly leads in recent polls.
Wisconsin
The 3.4 million registered Wisconsin voters have been able to request a mail-in vote for years without giving an apology.
In May, the Wisconsin Electoral Commission approved a plan to send absentee ballots to more than 2.7 million registered voters.
Turnout for presidential elections in Wisconsin is growing to about 3 million, election officials told The Hill. In 2016, 819,316 voters in Wisconsin voted absent, but less than 18 percent of those absent voters did so by mail.
Most absentee ballots cast in previous years were done in the municipal clerk’s office in the weeks leading up to the election, not by mail.
In April, 1.1 million of the 1.55 million ballots cast in the state’s primary state were mailed. As of this week, there are already more than 800,000 absentee ballot applications pending for November.
Wisconsin election officials begin counting votes after the polls opened on election day. Having the processing of such submitted ballots in a short period of time has led municipalities to rent or purchase additional voting machines to feed the absentee ballots while personal voters still use the other machines, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reported.
Trump won the Wisconsin Electoral College’s 10 votes this year in 2016.
Michigan
Registered voters in Michigan have long had to submit mail-in ballot forms, but this year Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson (D) sent all registered voters applications prior to the August and November general elections.
Benson said at a webinar Tuesday that is being hosted by the Democratic Association of State Secretaries that Michigan expects 1.5 million citizens by November to vote for the first time by mail.
Bensen said that in the primary August, more than 10,000 post-in-ballots were rejected, of which 6,000 were postmarked on the primary day but received the day after. Trump won Michigan by 10,704 votes in 2016, she noted.
For that reason, Bensen’s office asked the state governor to change the laws so that the state could accept votes on election day. In the meantime, they are urging voters to cast their ballots early.
‘If that does not change and nothing else changes, we face a scenario where we have to reject a number of otherwise valid votes that are delayed by no fault of the voter … and that number can victory in a number of races, ”said Bensen.
In 2018, 24.3 percent of Michigan voters voted by mail, according to the Electoral Commission. As of this week, 2.5 million people in Michigan were registered to vote by mail, Bensen said.
Michigan election officials can start counting on election day at any time.
North Carolina
The North Carolina General Assembly changed its laws this year to allow only one witness signature instead of two in e-mail ballots.
North Carolina election officials told The Hill that they anticipate 30 to 40 percent of voters who will vote by mail by 2020. In 2016, only 4.2 percent of voters voted through post.
As in Michigan, election officials urge voters to cast their ballots by the deadline on the books.
“The deadline set 40 years ago was unrealistic for years,” tweeted Wake County Electoral Commissioner Gerry Cohen. “Voters will have the best success if they receive an absent request to (their) province on October 15.”
Ballot papers in North Carolina received by mail after Election Day will only be counted if they are received no later than 5 hours on the third day after the election and postmarked on or before Election Day. Election officials in North Carolina begin voting two weeks before Election Day.
Trump won North Carolina in 2016 by 3.6 percentage points and took the 15 votes from the state election university.
Pennsylvania
Most Pennsylvania voters who attended the June 2 primary did so by mail, leading to delayed results, the Philadelphia Enquirer reported.
An analysis by the Enquirer found that thousands of votes were not counted because they arrived too late. Only 76 percent of the vote by mail in the three weeks before the election was counted, the paper found.
The Pennsylvania Department of State published a report this month asking the Legislature to require counties to distribute post-vote ballots earlier. Election officials are required to send votes to voters no later than 14 days before an election, but the department has now recommended 28 days.
Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar announced on July 31 that it would provide post-paid envelopes for voters to post-in with money allocated by Congress in the CARES Act.
Boockvar has said she expects at least half of the state’s voters to vote by mail by November. In 2018, just 3.7 percent of state voters voted by mail, according to the Electoral Assistance Commission.
Trump won Pennsylvania by less than one percentage point in 2016 and his 20 election votes were crucial to his victory.
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