The COVID-19 pandemic means voting in person is potentially dangerous, and polls across the country are showing a growing support for voting by mail as the path forward in this election. While the concerns that mail in voting brings up are valid, there is still not a good reason not to make voting by mail an option this November.
Foreign intervention in our elections is something federal officials were already aware of; this being a potential problem as soon as mail-in voting was the likely choice given the state of the world. As of September 1, U.S. intelligence agencies have not seen any coordinated voter-fraud effort by a foreign power or anyone else ahead of the election in November. However, the situation is being closely monitored the closer we move towards that day.
Ballot fraud is something being shouted from the ramparts in Washington, D.C., right now as well. In this case, it would involve thousands of fake or duplicate ballots being counted for one candidate. Now, a large scale effort like this, while not impossible, is definitely unlikely. There are prerequisites to voting by mail, and it is highly unlikely that a large group of people or even another country would be able to find a way to interfere so heavily in our election process.
Of course, the pros to voting by mail currently outweigh the possible downsides. The obvious one being that there would be no massive gatherings on election day, meaning no chance to spread the virus as a result of cramming people into a building to vote in person. This is especially true when the elderly are brought into the picture, with those 65 and over being the most likely to contract the virus and not recover.
Another would be voter participation, especially among the younger population who are historically bad at actually going and voting. Most people do not want to have to drive all the way there just to spend 30 seconds to cast your vote and then drive home. Since this method is so simple, it would allow for a wider age range to participate in the election.
Having the ballot in advance is not only convenient, it leads to a more informed voter. Lots of races and many important and complex ballot initiatives can cause voters who first see their ballot in the voting booth to completely ignore certain races and questions, or make a random choice with no actual knowledge of who they are voting for.
Expanding availability of secure voting drop boxes is not a terrible idea. Recent reporting indicated that Maryland, Virginia, and D.C. election officials are beginning to increase the number of vote-by-mail dropboxes for the upcoming November election.
This is a different world now, and the days of long lines, broken machines and slow poll workers are done with, at least for now. While the pandemic rages on, voting by mail is the only safe way for the people to vote as of now.