I’ve never voted by mail before, largely because Illinois offers early voting about a month before each election, which has allowed me to vote without interfering with my work schedule in several elections. But this election is different. There’s a pandemic, with numbers still rising both in Illinois and across the country. And while I’m not high risk – having none of the pre-existing conditions thought to increase the chances of catching it, and already working from home before this outbreak – I recognize that most of the poll workers tend to be older, and likely to be in those high risk categories. I have no interest in putting myself, my family, or anybody else at unnecessary risk.
I realize several politicians, many of whom vote by mail themselves, are claiming that voting by mail increases incidents of fraud. There is, frankly, no evidence of this. It is, as far as I can tell, something they’re making up to scare people, much like the unsubstantiated claims of massive voter fraud in the 2016 election. That said, given the opportunity to vote by mail, I wanted to break it down to look at the realism of the possibility.
First, there’s the envelope the ballot application arrives in. It’s addressed to me, at the name and address I registered to vote with. (I moved mid-2016; I immediately updated my voter registration since there was an election coming up.) The important thing I noted on the envelope was “Return Service Requested” above my information. I double-checked with a local letter carrier (that’s the official title for your mailman/mailwoman), and that means that if that name is not valid for that address, the letter gets returned to the sender. This is different from Address Service Requested, which would return the envelope and provide the forwarding address to the sender. So flat out, if you’re not at that address anymore, the letter gets returned.
And what if it accidentally gets delivered anyways? Well, let’s look at the application. Name, street, city and zip… those are all available on the envelope I received. My birth date – which is part of my voter registration – is not. Nor is my signature, and a mismatched signature is one of the common mistakes on absentee ballots – not generally because of fraud, but because of older voters whose motor skills are changing, or signatures recorded on that stupidly oversensitive electronic pad when you renewed your driver’s license. (I’m left-handed, and most of those pads are meant for right-handed people… the last time I had to sign for my driver’s license, it took me three tries to not bump it with anything other than the special pen.)
So even if you accidentally receive somebody else’s ballot application, you’re not likely to know enough information to request their ballot. Some states, like Oregon, had already switched to only vote by mail before the pandemic. Illinois allows all registered voters the option, and is now actively encouraging it because of the pandemic. I’ll post more on this topic once I’ve received my ballot, with a look at what checks are in place to prevent fraud on the actual ballot.
