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Should Indiana move to all-mail voting for its elections?
Voting is the basic civic responsibility for every eligible American.
Encouraging more citizens to participate in the process by casting their ballot in each election should always be our ultimate goal. There is something very powerful about having one day set aside as Election Day where our nation comes together as individuals to act based on beliefs and values about our direction as a country.
The current pandemic has created a renewed debate about the practicality and efficacy of in-person voting and making the switch to a vote-by-mail system. Make no mistake, this discussion has been going on for years.
For decades, the very notion of what constitutes “Election Day” in the romantic sense has been drastically changing, as we have seen our state and country systematically increase availability and convenience of voting options. According to statistics from the secretary of state, a full 32% of votes cast in the 2018 general election were considered absentee.
In some circles, a full vote-by-mail system is the next natural step. For a moment, let’s put aside the political ramifications, which will be debated for years, and take a look at the practical roadblocks. There is nothing more important than state and local governments’ executing a free and fair election for all voters.
With this in mind, we need to dig down and explore what we are really talking about when we say vote by mail. My experience tells me we are likely talking past each other in many of these conversations. In the case of vote by mail, the devil is in the details.
For example, are we talking about mailing ballots to every registered voter or are we mailing applications to request a ballot to every registered voter? Providing applications would then require a two-step process—requesting the ballot via an application, then receiving the ballot via mail and returning it.
If a state moves to a 100% mail-in election, the state must make a commitment to maintaining completely up-to-date voter rolls, which would require uniform internet and software access for every county and community. This also requires a nonpartisan commitment to rules that would allow election officials to purge the voter files of inactive and deceased voters to eliminate voter fraud. This has been difficult to accomplish in today’s political environment.
It must also standardize counting and reporting procedures with the acknowledgement that a vote-by-mail system would likely add a considerable amount of time to determining the winner of an election. This can affect voters’ confidence in the results.
It’s clear that we are not ready today for 100% vote-by-mail elections, but that should not stop us from taking interim steps that will help Hoosiers vote in these unprecedented times. The state has approved on a bipartisan basis no-reason absentee voting for the June 2 primary, which will allow every Hoosier to request and cast a ballot by mail. Marion County has taken the extra step of mailing ballot applications to all registered voters.
Like many others, I will be closely watching the results.•
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The more COVID-19 is exploited, the more we see the Socialist Marxist Democrat Anarchist Globalist having more new conceptual ideas of changing our country constitutionally as to oppress our freedoms via the propaganda panic they created via their MSM paid mouthpieces.
COVID-19 when researched is found to be a Deep State fraud and obvious vehicle created and to used to implement socialism upon ourselves by virtue of trading our freedoms for the illusion of “safety” from something that isn’t what it’s propagated to be.
We look at the last 3 national elections and have witnessed numerous Democrat voter fraud schemes across our nation with the more astringent regulations we have now. So how are we supposed to trust the Democrats new brainchild ideas? Simply we can’t, we don’t, and definitely won’t!
Mail in voting is worse than their no voter i.d. schemes! All the more dead will be coming from the graves. More people will be birthed into existence. There is no way by any feasible, logical, and logistical, means it can be done correctly, legally, and right.
There is no need for it! Most voting is done in the gymnasiums of local schools with thousands of square feet leftover now. There is more than enough area to spread voting booths etc. over 6 feet as per the required safety distancing. Also daily we see more people together at the grocery stores and other big box retailers and that’s permitted, so one day of less people walking in a more open school gymnasium isn’t going to make any difference to vote. Also by November, there is a higher probability we may not have as much social distancing requirements.
The only way we can have integrity to our elections is voting in person with the accountability of official witnesses examining our photo i.d.’s, and signing us in.
Called it for what it is. Another childish boorish deceitful plot for the Democrats to cheat to win an election they know they can’t win legally!