I live in Santa Clara county, which had a vote-by-mail-only policy for the primary in March. It was supposed to be part of an experiment in mail-only voting, as California was planning to be mail-only statewide by 2022 anyway.<p>FWIW, it was the easiest voting ever. I've been permanent vote-by-mail for many years, but usually I had to fight the crowds on election day to drop off my ballot at a polling place. This time they had drop boxes all over the county that were open 24 hours, so I was able to drop my ballot off at 10 Monday night, after I filled it out.<p>So this isn't actually a huge change. They're just accelerating the timeline.
California is one of the only states where “ballot harvesting” is legal. [0] Party officials can submit batches of votes collected from people who are not their family members. As you can imagine, accusations of impropriety abound.<p>Putting partisan politics aside, I’m not sure how a rational person can look at this and conclude that it leads to fair elections.<p>[0] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballot_harvesting" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballot_harvesting</a>
One criticism I see often of many electronic voting systems also applies to vote by mail: it does not protect against external pressure or buying votes. Someone could easily offer to buy blank ballots (especially from poor voters who may need the money), or otherwise coerce/pressure people to reveal their ballots and break anonymity. I realize actions like these are already a crime, but one of the main reasons for the secret ballot is to protect against situations like these by making it impossible to do.<p>Perhaps this compromise in the integrity of the voting system is one we want to make in these unusual times, but I think it is important to point out that there is indeed a compromise here. Mail voting doesn't come without its own issues.
We've always had absentee ballots. I've filed one once when I was overseas. If you want to vote, but not show up to a polling station, you can request a absentee. They do get counted after traditional ballots on election day results, but they do get counted. Why not just promote the existing system? Did California not have absentee ballots before now?
Absentee ballots were a disaster in WI. Many people did not get their ballots that they were supposed to by mail. Hard to believe that this could possibly be considered a legitimate election. <a href="https://www.jsonline.com/story/communities/northshore/news/fox-point/2020/04/08/wisconsin-election-fox-point-absentee-ballots-never-made-voters/5119812002/" rel="nofollow">https://www.jsonline.com/story/communities/northshore/news/f...</a>
My problem with vote-by-mail is that they have to confirm that your signature is the same... and mine is not. I have been voting by mail but I don't know if they count my vote.
I think we should all consider this: Do you know someone who is likely to go out there, harvest the ballots, and then dump them? If the answer to that is yes, then you should not want all mail in voting.