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With the 2020 election occurring during a global pandemic, a recession and a polarized political climate, the last thing residents need to worry about is whether their ballots will count. Although five states have been voting by mail exclusively for years, mail-in ballots are relatively new to a majority of voters and offer plenty of room for flaws.

Mail-in ballots differ from going to the polls in a few ways, depending on the state. Voters in some states must request their ballot by mail and wait weeks for just the application process to start. Some states even require voters to cite why they can’t vote in person before they can receive their ballot. Fortunately, 34 states and Washington, D.C. allow residents to vote by mail for any reason. 

These ballots also have more requirements than voting at the polls. Voters must read the long set of complex directions carefully before submitting their ballot, as any small mistake can invalidate their vote. Most states ask voters to sign and seal the envelope, and some even mandate that voters place and seal ballots in a second envelope. Five states even require a witness to be present while a voter signs the envelope to ensure there’s no possibility of voter fraud.

While all these extra steps are good to prevent voter fraud, they make it much more likely that a voter will make a mistake and invalidate their vote. Given that an increasing number of people voting by mail are more likely to support Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, these discounted votes could narrow the lead that Biden seems to be sporting in the polls. These easily overlooked requirements could have a huge influence over states such as Pennsylvania and North Carolina, where it could swing in Biden or President Donald Trump’s favor by a narrow margin. 

Steven White, an assistant professor of political science at Syracuse University, agrees that these requirements make it harder to vote by mail and easier to invalidate a ballot. They could also be helping Republicans and hurting Democrats, he said. 

“I think some Republicans do perceive… (mail-in voting) being designed to prevent fraud, but I don’t think fraud is such a widescope problem. So I think, in a sense, that there is an effort to make voting harder under the assumption that it helps the Republican party and hurts Democrats,” he said.

Although Trump claims that voter fraud is a big problem in the 2020 election, small mistakes by voters or local boards of elections will be a larger problem. Some states have sent out the incorrect ballot to residents or have sent ballots to people who have died, but they’re learning from these mistakes and diligently working to ensure that each resident casts one vote. 

Even though voter fraud is extremely rare, his strong encouragement against mail-in ballots may still work in his favor. If Republican voters believe him and go to the polls instead of risking their mail-in vote being invalidated, the scales may tip in crucial districts. 

How mail-in voting affects an election’s results also presents cause for concern. Some states refuse to begin counting votes until Election Day, meaning that results will definitely not be released the night of Nov. 3. Results could take days to come in, and once they are received, it’s unclear whether Trump will accept a potential victory for Biden or claim voter fraud as the reason for a “rigged election.”

When asked in the first presidential debate whether he would accept the results of this election no matter who won, Trump refused to answer and claimed he wanted to keep people in suspense. He did state, however, that he would accept the results if he won. The notion of “rigged” mail-in ballots could put the country in an uproar pending the results of the election. Trump may call for voting recounts and evaluations unlike anything voters have seen since the 2000 election and infamous Bush v. Gore fiasco in the Supreme Court. 

Although mail-in ballots present flaws to the system, hopefully both candidates can accept these flaws and the election’s results with integrity, and after 2020, we can look back and fix the flaws we do find.

Skylar Swart is a sophomore political science major. Her column appears bi-weekly. She can be reached at saswart@syr.edu. She can be followed on Twitter at @SkylarSwart.

Published on November 2, 2020 at 12:05 am