In our nation’s current state, two giant arguments are fighting it out in American discourse: first is the argument whether China or Russia is our nation’s biggest threat. The other is whether our populous should vote entirely by mail this fall, or vote on the old hybrid system. The media wishes the American people to believe it’s the best thing to do during the course of this pandemic. However, is a total mail-in ballot system a total non-partisan issue?
by Peter Moon
Before we get into the discussion of mail-ins, let’s look at exactly what a “mail-in” ballot is, and how it differs from the more common “absentee” ballot. According to an article from dictionary.com, there are several forms of the classic absentee. First there is the regular form- a person wishing to vote must first register if they are not already (of course), and then they must request to vote through absentee. In 16 states, absentee is the only legal way of voting by mail. Thus, the government needs to approve your ballot after weighing your reasons. These reasons can be as followed, each separated by a semi-colon (;): Being out of the county where they are registered to vote; Being a student living outside of the county; having an illness or disability; Working or being on jury duty during voting hours; Serving as an election worker or poll watcher; Having religious beliefs or practices that prevent them from going to a voting center; Being in prison but still able to vote. So you can’t just say on your application “I as an American under this democracy deserve to vote as I please-you are not allowed to challenge my reasoning”. These rules are in 16 states-slightly over 30% of the union, if counting non-states like Puerto Rico, D.C., or Guam.
The next type of absentee is called “No Excuse” absentee. This type of ballot is available in 29 states, and D.C.-roughly 57% of the union- and is considerably more lenient than in the 16 states. For one thing, a voter applying for this type doesn’t have to give an excuse-allowing our democracy die-hard from above to submit an application. Though it is referred to as a “no-excuse”, the state government itself may refer to it as just an “absentee”. Another good thing to consider is that certain states may even just defer to calling them “mail-in ballots” (looking at you, Pennsylvania). Just one more reason why it’s important to do your research.
The bottom line and the thing most of you want to know is that not all mail-in ballots are absentee; however, all absentee ballots are mail-in. So thus, the possible argument that he was going after the disabled community, the military, or college students goes out the window. If you think he was going after anyone in that tweet, anyway.
Thus we come to the two issues people are making: first, mail-in voting is put up as the best system by the Biden campaign, and the Trump campaign is voicing a lot of speculation on it. One thing the media is focusing on is the “Trump is on his own here” narrative when it comes to distrusting mail-in voting. However, I present to you, an Emerson poll. On April 28th, 2020, insidesource.com reported that a new Emerson poll reported that 47% of the respondents said they would trust a national vote-by-mail system. A full 1/3 of Americans in the poll (31%) showed distrust in this system. Let’s just remind ourselves that roughly 40% of America also approves Donald Trump. At least 10% of Trump’s approval base does not agree with the President. When it came to online balloting, 33% of America trusts such a system while 45% does not.
This brings us to another, more recent Emerson poll. On July 31st, Political Polls on Twitter (@PpollingNumbers) released an Emerson poll focused on voter intentions on likely voting methods. The poll was as follows: Intention voting in person: Trump, 65%. Biden, 32%; Voting by mail: Biden, 76%. Trump, 20%. If this poll is at all correct, it shows that the posh from both campaigns may be on a political gain level, rather than a “push to allow all voters to vote”. So if Trump is pushing to distrust mail-in voting nationwide (something 30% of Americans agree on), and Biden’s base will overwhelmingly vote by mail where it is available, should we really trust those in the media who say we should A) trust the system, and B) allow mass mail-in voting? It seems as though there is more to this issue than meets the eye.
All opinions expressed within the contents of this article reflect the views and values of the author, not Politics NOW.
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