By McKenna Harmony
The White House, photographed by David Everett Strickler on Unsplash.
The 2020 United States Presidential Election has been a controversial topic in recent months due to many voters varying views over the issue of mail-in voting.
With widespread mail-in voting, many are concerned about the possibility of fraud whereas others believe it is necessary to keep everyone safe.
Mail-in ballots were originally implemented to allow an absentee-voter to cast their vote when they were not able to vote in-person if they had a valid reason, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures website.
“What concerns me is mostly the mail-in ballots,” Lubbock County Commissioner Jason Corley said. “There’s always been problems with that.”
In the past, servicemen and servicewomen would send in their absentee ballots, and they failed to get counted or weren’t counted until after the election, Corley said. In addition to this, he said there were also incidents where they found a case of the ballots that had never been opened.
For this election, voters were able to mail in their ballots due to COVID-19, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures website.
As of the time of publication, Democratic candidate Joe Biden has 264 electoral votes and Incumbent President Donald Trump has 214 electoral votes, according to NPR.
Counting mail-in votes is slower due to matching voter signatures and checking addresses before being counted, according to the National Conference of State Legislature website.
There has been an increase in provisional ballots cast by people who requested a mail-in ballot and then went to the polling station to vote in-person instead, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center website. These ballots need to be checked closely to ensure no one votes more than once.
Despite statements on possible voter fraud, only 31 impersonation incidents out of more than 1 billion ballots cast from 2004 to 2014, according to Reuters.
As of publication time, the election results of Alaska, Georgia, Maine, Nebraska, Nevada, North Carolina and Pennsylvania have yet to be announced, according to NPR.
Absentee ballots enclosed in mailing envelopes. Photo by Tiffany Tertipes on Unsplash.
“Last night I was leading, often solidly, in many key states, in almost all instances Democrat-run and controlled,” Trump tweeted Nov. 4. “Then, one by one, they started to magically disappear as surprise ballot dumps were counted.”
Democratic voters were forecasted more likely vote by mail, whereas Republican voters were more likely to vote in-person, according to a Pew Research Center survey. This is why millions of mail-in votes still remain uncounted in undecided states.
Biden told his supporters in his post-election day speech that he believes they are on track to win the election but made it clear that the ballots that still remain to be counted do not declare a victory.
The mail-in ballot risk assessment infographic on the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency website displays possible risks of mail-in ballots.
“For mail-in voting, some of the risk under the control of election officials during in-person voting shifts to outside entities, such as ballot printers, mail processing facilities, and the United States Postal Service,” the CISA website reads.
CISA’s solution to that risk is that some jurisdictions have implemented technology and infrastructure and have been given the opportunity to process ballots early. They have also said election officials, media, and candidates are educating voters.
A nationwide sampling of election fraud cases in years past, curated by The Heritage Foundation, was published on The White House website. This sample, while not exhaustive, highlights 1,071 examples of fraud cases that resulted in 938 criminal convictions.
FBI Director Christopher Wray has said in addition to these efforts, the agency is monitoring the situation very closely.
Campaign posters in a garage window, just before the 1938 primary. Waco, Texas. Photographer: Dorothea Lange; Published by The New York Public Library on Unsplash.
“We’ve been working for years as a community to build resilience in our election infrastructure—and today that infrastructure remains resilient,” Wray said at an election security conference. “You should be confident that your vote counts. Early, unverified claims to the contrary should be viewed with a healthy dose of skepticism. We encourage everyone to seek election and voting information from reliable sources—namely, your state election officials. And to be thoughtful, careful, and discerning consumers of information online.”
Ahead of the elections, the FBI release of video of Wray stating the security of votes, no matter the method, is one of the agency’s highest priorities.
John Gibson, Texas House District 84 Democratic challenger, said he does not expect fraud to be an issue when it comes to counting mail-in votes, but if problems do arise, he trusts in our institutions to protect our voting process.
“I don’t think that these kinds of issues are near as big of an issue as what we’re afraid of, however, I say all that and COVID is a real problem and never before have we had an election during a pandemic like this one,” Gibson said.
About Reece Nations, Managing Editor
