The following column is the opinion and analysis of the writer.
The Clintons, former Attorney General Eric Holder, Barack Obama and our Democratic Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs have all called for using the current COVID-19 pandemic as an excuse to enact a long-held goal of the left — all-mail voting. Why is this?
A once-in-a-century health crisis is no reason to permanently change the voting system. If anyone feels unsafe going to the polls this cycle, they can request a one-time mail ballot.
“Voter convenience” is no good reason. To vote is the most sacred obligation of a citizen, thus ensuring that those elected to govern have the consent of the governed. If you can go to the grocery store, you can go to the polls to vote. As for the oft repeated “increased turnout” justification, this is an urban legend.
Here in Pima County, statistics repeatedly show the same low turnout, year after year, compared to former in-person elections.
The arguments against all-mail voting are compelling. Voting by mail interjects a third party into the voting process — the United States Postal Service. The ballot chain of custody is completely broken by voting by mail, in both the mail-out and mail-in processes.
Exacerbating this problem is the specter of ballot harvesting, illegal in Arizona, but because the law contains no enforcement mechanism or penalties, the practice continues to be reported by election workers throughout the state.
And the signature verification necessitated by mail voting is fatally flawed.
Not only is the comparison done by non-experts, in Pima County those doing this subjective analysis have been given the party registration of the voter whose signature is being verified! How is this defendable?
Rather than go to all-mail voting, we citizens should be clamoring for a return to in-person voting and the “absentee ballot” with a valid excuse, complete with proof of identity at the polling place.
No ballot harvesting, no one handling ballots but the voter and election workers, and no subjective signature verification needed. Of course, in-person voting might come with a higher price tag than vote by mail, but, some of this could be offset by no postage expense and fewer employees in the Recorder’s office. But what price democracy? If only the vote by mail genie could be put back in the bottle!
