Voting is underway in Colorado, where the first all mail-in balloting in a presidential election is occurring. Colorado’s county clerks have experience at this: Two years ago voters participated in an off-year election all by mail.
In other states, voting has or has not begun. Absentee voting prior to the election is easier in some, as anecdotally some clerks are setting a lower bar than in the past. Where it used to require a significant argument to be allowed to vote prior to Election Day – Election Day was hallowed – now pretty much every reason to be absent might be accepted. To some extent, that is because the magic of the single day has been diminished.
In some states in the southeast, those in political power continue to try to make it difficult to vote. Possession of a photo ID and a utility bill, perhaps, are being required. Those who cannot easily produce those documents are the voters those in power want to keep away from polling places.
Those convicted of a felony have generally not been able to vote, even after they have completed their sentence. But in some states that is changing, with the appealing argument being that those who have completed their sentence not only deserve to be able to fully reconnect with society, but that it is healthy to do so.
There are also claims that voting on a single day, a work day, is disenfranchising. Travelling between a neighborhood polling place and a distant workplace within the hours required may be very difficult or impossible for some.
Some argue for multiple voting days, perhaps including a weekend day.
For those overseas, such as in the military or in the Peace Corps, it may be uncertain whether their completed ballots will arrive by the end of the Election Day. In a mail-in election, in which clerks make ballots available three weeks prior, or ballots are sent out electronically, they should have adequate time. But to allow for delays which are not of distant voters’ making, ballots from those voters can still be counted several days after Election Day. That is awkward.
Here in Southwest Colorado, where the regular mail from towns is sorted elsewhere and delivery time extended, voters rightly feel uncertain as to just when their completed ballot should go into the mail. That is not helpful.
The mail-in ballot, which is in its infancy but looks to be very successful, may do away with any national push to expand voting in person to two or more days.
Given the various disparate decisions states have made in regard to how votes can recorded, and by whom, is there an argument to create national requirements and procedures for all states and territories as to who can vote and how? Voting in November every two years, after all, determines who will play national roles as members of the House and the Senate as well as president and vice president. If it was possible to implement voting requirements to apply to just those offices, that would be the solution; let states do what they wish for their own elected offices. But, two sets of requirements and procedures would not be workable.
In the coming months and years, we expect there to be continued conversations about how to best extend democracy in the fairest and most inclusive ways possible for all Americans. National voting standards should be a part of that conversation.
