I have two concerns with mail-in ballots for the Nov. 3 election:
1. Possible fraud. California will send about 20 million ballots to people on current voter rolls. Last year L.A. County alone was found to have 1.5 million registered names that needed to be removed from the voter rolls. Are they all purged now? Our secretary of state has notified other counties to clean their rolls, too. Since mail-in ballots are just sent without request (like absentee ballots require) how many might end up at an address where the registered voter has moved or died? What do you suppose happens to that ballot?
2 Delay. In 2016 and 2018 it took California 30 days to count ballots. In 2020, the number will be larger. Five other states permit ballots to arrive AFTER Election Day! Iowa by noon on Nov. 9, Ohio by Nov. 13, Nevada by Nov. 10, North Carolina by Nov. 10, Minnesota by Nov. 10. Some of these are “battleground states” capable of swinging the election. Also remember, mail-in ballots require matching signatures to those on the voter rolls. This is a time-consuming process and the volume in California is expected to be HUGE! 2020’s election will probably NOT declare a winner by midnight on Nov. 3 (as we have seen on other years). More probably, it will take weeks. We know that mail-in ballots are often REJECTED at a high rate (voter failed to sign the envelope, voter used different signature, etc.). There are likely to be many disputes over ballots that were rejected.
After looking at all these issues, I’m convinced COVID-19 is NOT a valid reason to eliminate in-person voting. I’m going to the polling station.
Albert Bigelow
Valencia
