Vote by mail is safe but unwise for the first time

I am not a fan of “Vote By Mail”.  I think it makes voting too easy.  Something as important and significant as picking our leaders, shouldn’t be the same as paying the power bill or the credit card bill.  It should take some effort and some study.  The worse thing for a democracy is an ignorant voter.

Having said all that, I have accepted “Vote By Mail” and participate in the election as I have for every election for the last 50 years.

For the most part, voting by mail has become a standard in voting safety.  Very few fraudulent ballots make their way to the counting table.  The last statistic I heard was that 0.01 percent of all ballots in Washington State were found to be illegal.

When Washington started “Vote By Mail” nearly a decade ago, it was a new idea and as such it had growing pains.  Most of those are in the past.  That last impediment to voting by mail was the need to put a stamp on your ballot.  In my view that was a poll tax.  The need to use a stamp was recently done away with.

States which are attempting “Vote By Mail” for the first time will have a number of problems.  Signature checking, which use to occur at the ballot box, will now have to be done at a collection station.  Voters will need to have a place they can drop the ballot off and be assured they are safe.  That takes to time to do and time for voters to have confidence their ballots are safe.  And, voters need to be assured that who they vote for is kept confidential.  That takes time as well.

So, states voting all by mail for the first time will encounter a great deal of troubles, concerns and questions.

The biggest problem comes at the end, when the collection center is over-whelmed with thousands of ballots arriving after election day.   Not only does this spread out the counting of the ballots, but it leaves close races blowing in the wind with no answer for weeks.  There is no ending day when the counting has to stop.  The election is usually over when it has to be certified – and even then there still may be uncounted ballots.

My solution to this problem is that all ballots must be received at the election office by the end of business on election day.

Any state attempting all “Vote By Mail” for the first time will have to be aware that you can’t make the baby walk until it has developed enough to take the first step.  And, taking the first step because you have little recourse is a poor way to learn to run.