A King County, Washington election employee verifies signatures accompanying ballots solid within the state's August main. AP Picture/Ted S. Warren

Greater than eight in 10 Individuals – all voters in 43 states – will have the ability to vote by mail within the 2020 presidential election, probably the most ever. And greater than 1 in three voters plan to truly accomplish that.

Voting by mail might help residents restrict their publicity to the coronavirus pandemic, whereas nonetheless exercising their key proper to vote in a democracy. Mail-in voting requires extra steps than voting in individual, and it occurs in folks’s houses, fairly than at a polling place with skilled assist close by. So it’s extra more likely to result in errors and ensuing poll rejections.

For many individuals, the largest concern is whether or not the U.S. Postal Service can deal with all that mail in November. However within the presidential and congressional main elections which have already occurred this 12 months, election students like me have seen different issues which can be a minimum of as massive, and should stop states from successfully distributing, amassing and counting ballots.

Too few election staff

Within the 2020 main elections to this point, there have been fewer ballot staff than in previous years, partially as a result of lots of them are older and subsequently extra prone to severe instances of COVID-19. These folks, typically volunteers or momentary part-time staff, play essential roles at polling locations, checking voters in, handing out the suitable ballots and supervising placement of the ballots into safe packing containers or vote-counting machines.

In Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the scarcity of skilled ballot staff contributed to the closure of 175 polling locations in April’s main election, leaving simply 5 open – which then had very lengthy strains.

Heading into the overall election, battleground states are quick hundreds of ballot staff. Native officers are hoping to recruit younger folks – even folks beneath 18 who can’t vote themselves – to fill the gaps.

One in all 5 polling locations in Milwaukee that remained open Apr. 7 was a highschool gymnasium with voting cubicles set other than one another and election staff sporting masks and gloves.

AP Picture/Morry Gash

Gradual to mail out ballots

In primaries throughout the nation, hundreds of registered voters who anticipated to obtain ballots within the mail by no means bought them – even in states that mentioned they have been sending ballots to all registered voters. Maryland, as an illustration, admitted that 5% of the state’s registered voters didn’t obtain ballots, although everybody was presupposed to.

In New York, for instance, election staff who obtained a request to mail out a main poll needed to verify the individual making the request was a registered voter and decide their get together registration. Then they despatched the voter’s data to a non-public firm that printed and mailed out the ballots.

These firms acknowledged being overwhelmed. Tens of hundreds of New Yorkers by no means obtained a poll.

Nationally the U.S. Postal Service discovered that native or state election officers mailed greater than 1 million main ballots within the week main as much as every state’s main date. That didn’t go away a lot time for voters to get ballots, a lot much less for them to vote and return the ballots in time to be counted.

If vital shares of the voting public don’t get ballots, that might have an effect on the election’s consequence, particularly in swing states the place victory margins are sometimes slender.

Delays and lacking signatures disqualify ballots

There have been additionally issues with the ballots that made it to voters. Throughout the nation, election officers disqualified greater than half one million mail-in ballots as a result of they didn’t meet strict requirements for timing and voters’ signatures, required when voting by mail.

The explanation for many rejections was that they weren’t despatched to election officers by the deadline. Of the 102,000 absentee ballots California rejected, 70,000 – 68% – have been for being late. Equally in Michigan, 64% of disqualified ballots have been rejected for being late.

Earlier than New York’s main, Gov. Andrew Cuomo prolonged the deadline for ballots to reach, and there have been nonetheless lawsuits and a federal decide’s ruling that some ballots postmarked past that new deadline must also be counted. Even so, 1 in four absentee ballots have been disqualified in New York Metropolis alone.

Many ballots that made it again to native officers on time have been additionally disqualified as a result of voters both hadn’t signed the poll envelope or that they had – however their signature didn’t match the one in authorities information.

That occurred to 2,225 ballots in Michigan – 20% of all of the state’s disqualified ballots. California rejected greater than 27,000 ballots – 26% of its whole rejections – as a result of they both lacked a signature completely or it didn’t match correctly.

A ballot employee in Miami Seaside, Florida, displays a drop field the place voters can place ballots, fairly than mailing them in.

AP Picture/Lynne Sladky

Lowering want for mail

Many states are working to attempt to tackle these issues, together with decreasing the load on the Postal Service itself. At the very least a dozen states enable residents to request a mail-in poll on-line, fairly than having to mail in an utility to vote by mail. At the very least eight extra let folks obtain the varieties from an internet site, to both print out and mail in or ship by electronic mail. Some communities additionally enable voters to depart ballots in particular drop packing containers at authorities buildings and different public areas.

These strategies are extra handy for a lot of Individuals, and might scale back the dependence on the U.S. Postal Service for some steps within the course of. However they don’t do a lot to assist the 19 million Individuals who lack broadband web entry, together with 1 in four rural residents. And a few states that don’t require identification to vote in individual do demand id paperwork when interacting on-line – although doing so disproportionately disenfranchises African American and Latino voters.

Monitoring ballots

Extra states – 39 finally depend – let voters monitor their ballots within the mail. This helps folks really feel assured their vote has been counted and should give them sufficient discover to vote in individual if their mail-in poll encounters delays or different issues.

Additional time for counting

Based mostly on the experiences within the primaries, election officers are more likely to want extra time in November to depend votes, particularly within the 14 states that enable ballots to reach within the mail after Election Day or the 30 states that may’t start counting mailed-in ballots till Election Day.

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Shut main races this 12 months in New York and Kentucky took a number of weeks to tally.

Election officers say related delays in official outcomes will occur once more in November. Individuals shouldn’t anticipate rapid outcomes this 12 months, however some politicians could attempt to declare victory prematurely and solid doubt that later vote tallies are correct.

Luke Perry doesn’t work for, seek the advice of, personal shares in or obtain funding from any firm or organisation that will profit from this text, and has disclosed no related affiliations past their tutorial appointment.