Simple questions about mail-in voting

Brut America

Is there a difference between mail-in voting and absentee voting? Can you vote by mail if you're homeless? Why does the USPS matter to the 2020 election?  Here are 11 very simple questions about mail-in voting, answered.

Transcript

00:00If the post office is understaffed and underfunded,

00:04you might put your ballot in the, you know, in the mailbox

00:07expecting that you've cast a perfectly legal ballot,

00:10but if nobody gets to it and postmarks it by election day,

00:14your ballot won't be counted.

00:20I guess you could think of mail-in voting

00:22as just any way in which somebody votes by mail.

00:25So, you know, there are some states

00:28where voters automatically receive a mail ballot

00:31and they fill out their ballot

00:34in the comfort of their own home and then they mail it in.

00:36There are other states where you have to request

00:38a mail ballot by applying for an absentee ballot,

00:42but essentially that would work the same way

00:44after you've requested it.

00:49The biggest advantage during the,

00:52in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic

00:54is safety and health, obviously.

00:56People are worried about going out in person

00:58and waiting in lines

00:59and coming in close contact with other people.

01:02And similarly, poll workers.

01:04Many of our poll workers are often just elderly people

01:06who decide to volunteer their time

01:08or accept very low compensation for serving democracy

01:11and they show up and they work all day

01:12in very close proximity with other people.

01:14And so there's a safety issue for them as well.

01:17In the absence of a global pandemic,

01:18there's still the argument that we should make voting

01:21as convenient and accessible as possible for people.

01:25And so mail voting certainly provides a benefit there.

01:32Mail voting, you would say,

01:33is any process by which you're voting by mail

01:36and absentee voting often involves mail voting.

01:38So they're often the same thing.

01:39Absentee voting would involve somebody saying,

01:42I can't go to the polling place in person.

01:45Maybe I'm traveling.

01:46Maybe I'm a college student who's away from home, et cetera.

01:51Can I get, can I vote some other way?

01:53And mail would be one of the ways

01:54you could vote absentee.

02:00Mail voting probably does introduce some extra risks

02:03associated with fraud.

02:04So with a mail-in ballot,

02:06it can be harder to know if the person

02:08who filled out the ballot

02:09is really the person who they say they are.

02:12You also might be more worried with a mail ballot

02:15that somebody was coerced, right?

02:17Nobody is allowed to go to the voting booth with you

02:21and stand over your shoulder

02:22and force you to vote for their preferred candidate,

02:25but they could come to your kitchen table,

02:27look over your shoulder,

02:28coerce you to vote for somebody,

02:29and then watch you put that ballot in the mail.

02:31And so mail voting does introduce some extra risks

02:34that are not present with in-person voting

02:38in polling locations.

02:39With that being said,

02:41these risks are probably pretty small

02:43in our modern American democracy.

02:47Most, many people, many journalists,

02:49many academics have actively tried to look for fraud,

02:52and you can find rare cases of fraud

02:55with mail-in voting and with other forms of voting,

02:58but they're probably pretty rare.

03:04It's just a different process.

03:05And so if your county elections office

03:08isn't used to processing

03:10many, many thousands of mail-in ballots,

03:12and all of a sudden in 2020 they're going to,

03:14that is gonna pose a logistical challenge for sure.

03:16They have to figure out

03:18how to process all of those ballots,

03:19where to keep them,

03:20how to count them,

03:21how to make sure that no bad actors

03:23could potentially get to those ballots

03:25and tamper with them.

03:26So there are certainly logistical challenges,

03:29and there's certainly new challenges,

03:31new logistical challenges for the voters

03:33to figure out how do I apply for a mail-in ballot?

03:36What requirements do I need?

03:37If you've never done that before,

03:39that could certainly be a new challenge

03:41that you have to think about.

03:47There are different ways to vote absentee.

03:49So one of them would be requesting a mail ballot,

03:52filling it out, and sending it back in via mail.

03:55One of them might be receiving it via mail,

03:59filling it out, and then taking it in person,

04:01which a lot of people pre-COVID-19,

04:05that was actually a pretty common form

04:07of absentee voting in the United States.

04:09Other forms of absentee voting

04:11might be for people who are living overseas.

04:13They can file what's called

04:16a federal postcard application,

04:18and they can actually, in some cases, in some states,

04:21they can vote via email or fax as well.

04:23So there are different forms of absentee voting,

04:25but mail voting is the most common form of absentee.

04:32The biggest implication for elections

04:34is that the typical rule is that your ballot

04:38has to either arrive at the elections office

04:40or be postmarked by the election day.

04:42And so this will, of course, become very important

04:45as November approaches to make sure

04:47that the post office is reasonably staffed

04:50and able to handle these many, many thousands of,

04:53maybe millions of mail ballots

04:55that it's gonna have to deal with.

05:01The process by which those ballots are counted

05:03is typically different, although every state and county

05:05might do things a little bit differently.

05:08But typically, when you cast a ballot

05:10at the polling location,

05:12those ballots are often counted electronically,

05:15and then you have a verified paper ballot,

05:18and they might be counted right there at the polling place.

05:20And we largely know how the votes have come out

05:24at that polling location by the time the polls close.

05:28That won't be the case with mail ballots.

05:30Mail ballots are often counted separately

05:32in maybe the county elections office

05:35through a different process.

05:40When there are many, many mail ballots,

05:42that's gonna be a longer process for them to figure out.

05:46And we also don't know exactly

05:47when all of those mail ballots are gonna come in.

05:49Like we said earlier,

05:50a ballot could have been postmarked on election day,

05:52but it might take a couple of days

05:53to get to the elections office,

05:55a few more days to be processed and counted.

05:57And so it's possible we won't know the results

05:59of an election where a lot of mail ballots were cast

06:02until well after election day.

06:03I think it is important for both journalists and citizens

06:07to be patient and not rush things

06:10because you can imagine how disastrous

06:12it would be for democracy if,

06:14for example, we thought somebody won

06:16and then a few days later things were reversed

06:19and then you have half the country is really angry

06:22and feels like the election was somehow stolen from them.

06:24And mail voting certainly increases this risk.

06:31There are states where essentially

06:33the default is mail voting.

06:34If you're a registered voter,

06:36you will automatically be mailed a ballot

06:38and your default way of voting

06:40would be to fill out that ballot

06:41and then put it in the mail or drop it off in person.

06:44There would be some options for you to even go in person

06:47and say, I'd like to vote in person instead

06:49at a voting location at an elections office.

06:56If you're homeless

06:58and you don't have a permanent address,

07:00you are still legally allowed to vote,

07:03allowed to register and allowed to vote.

07:06Many elections offices will encourage you

07:07to list some address or some way that you could be found.

07:11You can, in some states, just list a street corner

07:13where you might regularly be.

07:16You can list a shelter where maybe mail could,

07:20you could be reached at the shelter

07:22or you could have the option of showing up in person

07:25and saying, I'm a registered voter

07:27and I'd like to cast my vote

07:28even though I don't have a permanent address.

07:29So there should be ways for those

07:32without a permanent address to vote in every state.

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