“Voting by post really works here in Utah,” said Justin Lee, director of elections in Utah, where the Republican administration sends votes to every voter in the state. “We feel safe and secure. We do not feel that there are real instances of widespread fraud or dismissal of voters. ”
Many Republicans are outwardly cautious about not addressing Trump’s remarks, but privately they feared that his escalating allegations of fraud could scare trusted supporters into voting at a distance. New interviewer has raised these concerns and Democrats are pushing Republican requests for absentee ballots in some swinging states.
Trump often tries to distinguish between e-mail votes and absentee ballots, saying that the latter has additional safeguards and only goes to those who request them (election officials say the ballots look identical). He even asked for an absentee vote to vote in this week’s Florida primary, and his own campaign is aimed at counties in battle-torn states where absentee ballots made a difference in 2016, encouraging supporters through a website to request votes and post Facebook ads saying “Absentee ballots are GOOD. I need you to get your application and send your absentee ballot IMMEDIATELY.”
But across the country, the distinction between emails and absent voices appears negative.
Some states use the words interchangeably or use a single term for all emails. In Florida, voters can request a post-a-vote without giving a reason, but in Texas, voters must list a reason for remote voting. However, in both states all remote ballots are referred to as “mail-in ballots.” Over in Vermont, polls are sent to everyone, while in Wisconsin only voting applications are sent to everyone. However, all mailings in both states are called “absentee ballots”.
“The president is making a false distinction and no, there are no more protection measures with absent votes,” said Sean Morales-Doyle, the deputy director of suffrage, elections and democracy at the Brennan Center for Justice. “The protections available and those used to protect the integrity of elections are the same in both systems.”
Trump’s full-fledged attack about voting rights by mail began in the spring when he began chatting about massive fraud with not much evidence. In recent weeks, he has extended his criticism to USPS, which he says the millions of extra ballots cannot expect this year.
Democrats sound the alarm, accusing Trump of trying to undermine confidence in the election, while voting for mail-in is limited due to declining polls against Joe Biden.
The House of Representatives will return on Saturday to vote to give USPS an additional $ 25 billion and to ask Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, a longtime Republican donor, about allegations he is trying to vote on by e-mail by cutting back on employee hours and removal of sorting machines. Trump in the first instance threatened withholding money from the post office in an attempt to vote for post-in. But in recent days, he said he would agree to $ 10 billion of the request, maybe more. DeJoy has also called for paused planned changes until after the election.
“Democrats rejected a $ 10 billion offer to the U.S. Postal Service by this president before going into recess,” White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said Wednesday. “But now they are back to follow the latest crisis of Democrat-producing. It’s sad, but it’s clear where Democrats’ priorities stand. ”
More than two dozen states, run by both Democrats and Republicans, have already made changes to the vote to vote for mail-in for the November election. In the past, researchers have found universal vote for entry does not privilege Republicans as Democrats, and election officials say it is unclear if either party can benefit by 2020. Yet some Republicans said Democrats have traditionally been more capable of registering their supporters for absent votes – and they are trying to change that fact this year.
“Democrats did a much better job than we did getting voters to use absentee ballots,” said Dave Millage, president of the Scott County Republican Party in Iowa. Millage said he is pushing voters this year to vote absent in nightly meetings and on social media. But, he added, the state’s decision to send out applications has caused some confusion among voters, with some questioning why they received an application and others telling him they did not trust the Postal Service.
By 2020, four states – California, Vermont, New Jersey, Nevada – and Washington, DC, plan to send votes to all registered voters. Seven others, including Arizona, Wisconsin and Iowa, will submit filing applications. Some states will allow coronavirus as a reason to vote by mail, although voters in most other states may submit a submission request without giving a reason.
Even before the pandemic, five states – Colorado, Hawaii, Oregon, Utah and Washington – held elections entirely by mail with little trouble.
Terry Lathan, president of the Republican Party in Alabama, plans to vote for absentees before November, even more than she normally does. Their state added coronavirus to the reasons voters could request an absent vote this year. But Lathan said she agreed with Trump that universal voting poses mail-in security risks, and seemed to “throw ballots out the window of an airplane and let everyone grab one.”
While Trump has mostly criticized Democratic states for their voting policies, states with Republican governors and election officials have also expanded voice-by-mail programs.
Two weeks ago, during a visit to the White House, Republican Gov. Doug Ducey of Arizona stepped back when Trump suggested that submitting a vote be condemned with fraud.
“In Arizona, we’re going to do well,” Ducey said. ‘It will be free and fair. It will be difficult, if not impossible, to cheat. And it will be easy to vote. ”
Nearly 80 percent of voters in Arizona generally cast ballots through the mail. This year, the state will mail applications to all voters.
Trump responded by moving the conversation to Nevada, led by a Democratic governor.
Experts say states choose remote controls before they are counted.
“Each state has a process for checking the voters and the registration status of the voter, for matching the signature on the top of the ballot with the voter’s signature in file, verifying each identification -required in state law, “said Ned Foley, director of electoral law at Moritz College of Law at Ohio State University. “No envelope can be opened and no vote can be removed within counting unless these compliance verification steps have been completed. That would be true for all sent ballots. ”
Critics say the potential problems with voice mail are varied. Voters can cast their ballots for following instructions, for not having a proper signature or for having a name that does not exactly match the information on file. Apart from that, they say, the voting roles that determine who receives a vote can be invalid, as votes can be sent to the wrong address if lost in the email.
But supporters of mail-in voting say these concerns can be addressed through funding, tweaks to the rules and voter education. In Utah, officials said sending ballots to voters has helped the state clean up its voter turnout, because if a vote is returned, the state can then remove that person from the list.
“We feel really good when the ballots get to the right people,” Lee said.
However, Trump and the Republican National Committee’s campaign has gone to court dozens of times as part of a $ 20 million effort to challenge voting rules, including filing its own lawsuits in several state-run states, including Minnesota, Pennsylvania and Nevada. .
Opponents of Trump and outside advisers have also speculated about possible executive action he could take to curb post-vote. But Trump’s options are severely limited by the constitution, which gave states the authority to control elections.
“If you can pay in person, you can vote in person!” Trump tweeted Wednesday. Despite the focus on personal suffrage, a White House official said the president still supports “safe personal votes and absent votes.”
Trump has noted that Anthony Fauci, the top-notch infectious disease expert, said there is “no reason” Americans can not vote in person as long as they follow social distancing guidelines.
However, there could be problems. Election officials are worried about long lines and a shortage of staff at personal polling stations during the pandemic.
Some local and state officials say older voters like those living in more rural areas – who tend to vote Republican – prefer to vote by mail, which means they do not have to worry about replacing so many voting machines or it finding so many poll workers.
Critics argue that states that want to switch to postal voting need years to build the infrastructure needed to handle both outgoing and incoming voting.
“Successful implementation, the way it should be carried out, takes a period of five years,” said Alabama Republican Secretary of State John Merrill. “Not five months, five years.”
