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Recently, president Donald Trump has been adamant about his opposition to mail-in voting. However, after it was pointed out that the president himself casts his votes through absentee ballots, he specified what he meant. Speaking with reporters, Trump clarified that absentee voting is “fine,” but that “universal” mail-in ballots are rife with fraud. So, what’s the difference?
Well, due to the decentralized nature of US elections, the only real difference is in the name. Mail-in voting and absentee ballots are collected and tallied exactly the same way. In some states, you need to provide an excuse as to why you want to mail in your vote. This is often called “absentee ballot” voting. In others, you can get a mail-in ballot without an excuse. In yet other states, like Washington, all elections are conducted using universal mail-in voting.
The president has doubled down on his claims that mail-in votes are more prone to fraud than in-person voting. However, this doesn’t appear to be backed by any research. Non-partisan researchers have found that mail-in voting, whether it’s universal or not, is not any more prone to fraud than traditional voting booths. This is because states have complex measures in place to double-check ballots against existing voter rolls.
In fact, the majority of fraudulent mail ballots are clerical errors. People who accidentally report the wrong address, check the wrong box or misspell something are often the “culprits,” and it’s fairly easy to address these issues. The type of widespread fraud suggested by the president has simply never occurred in the US.
So, why would the president claim to the contrary? It’s unclear whether Trump is aware that his statements are untrue. However, in any case, his political opponents have seized on these arguments and made them critical to the election.
Democrats have accused Trump of trying to suppress voter turnout by demonizing mail-in voting. During a pandemic, more people are likely to cast mail-in ballots than ever before. For many older Americans, mail-in voting will be as important as arthritis medication due to the dangers of the virus.
Yet the Postal Service has recently seen a slate of changes thanks to Louis DeJoy, the new Postmaster General. Trump recently appointed DeJoy, a GOP donor with no prior background in the mail industry. Democrats characterize his slate of changes to the Postal Service as an attempt to hobble the organization ahead of the election in order to slow the counting of votes.
