Absentee-Minded

As of late, the 45th President of the United States, Donald Trump, has been extremely vocal about his opposition to absentee voting, AKA voting by mail. He has cited the potential of voter fraud by mail, and has advocated for voting in person, even though voting in person has it's share of issues. (Anyone here remember the issue of "hanging chads" in the 2000 Presidential election?)

In the midst of a pandemic, Trump's fixation on this topic is such that he is threatening to withhold funding to a pair of battleground (toss-up) states, Michigan and Nevada, if they go ahead and issue absentee ballots for the entire population for each respective state. Keep in mind that the state government of Texas, a long-standing Republican state, has cited a person's not wanting to come down with COVID-19 as a reason to request an absentee ballot. In addition, Trump has voted absentee from his registered home of Florida for the past three election cycles.

I have voted absentee for the past three election cycles as well, from my respective home state of California. The state's governor, Gavin Newsom, has already stated that the state of California will issue absentee ballots for the state's residents for the 2020 Presidential election. From my personal take on this, I really don't see the big issue of absentee voting.

So more states are issuing absentee ballots so more people can vote. And?

This should be a concern to me... why?

The way I see it, absentee voting is more of a convenience than this big, scary issue that it's being made out to be. Think about it - you don't have to take time out of your day for one particular day every couple of years. No having to find out where your polling place is, or having to remember where it is. You basically get a special envelope in the mail, with two pages of ballots inside, make your selections you want, put the ballots in the envelope, and put the envelope in the mailbox.

That's it.

No need to take time out of your day to vote, no need to remember where your polling place is. You can put the ballot in the mail anywhere from a month up to one week before the election. And don't give me any excuse of last minute developments, people's minds are made up long before Election Day, and it has been for the last twenty years. The idea of a last minute political development to sway voters is more of a Hollywood trope than a reality.

Really, the arguments against increased absentee voting, in the midst of a pandemic that is chock full of uncertainties, becomes flimsier the more you delve into the issue. The debacle of the 2020 Wisconsin Democratic primary is a sterling example of the gaping holes against absentee voting. Rather than accept mail-in ballots or to postpone the primaries to another date, Wixconsin's state legislature, stubbornly showing that they have the intelligence of a sack of wrenches, insisted on holding the primary as scheduled. Aside from the obvious consequence of dozens of voters contracting COVID-19 as they waited in line to vote, the fact that the polling places were significantly reduced due to polling places not wanting to cause outbreaks was, at once, a huge reason why Bernie Sanders lost that state to Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders suspending his campaign.

One of the constants in human history is that humanity has shown a resistance to change, even if that change makes things more convenient and makes society progress forward. Also true is the fact that society changes, as they transition to more convenient methods from what was once complicated. Even without the specter of COVID-19 looming, there will be more of a shift towards absentee voting, as the logical arguments support this method of convenience.

Voting isn't a privilege, it is a right. Three of the United States Amendments of the Bill of Rights - the Fifteenth (prohibiting the denial of voting based on race), the Nineteenth (prohibiting the denial of voting based on sex), and the Twenty-Sixth (which set the voting age to 18) - specifically focus on the right to vote. There is no doubt that increasing the amount of absentee ballots would significantly increase the amount of people who will be able to vote. The only realistic reason to clamp down on voting would be reducing how many people can vote in an election - which would infringe on the rights of millions upon millions of Americans.

I end this article with this. We live in a society where it progresses based on convenience, and more complicated methods of living life are eventually phased out in support of more convenient methods. Absentee voting is just one of many of these convenient methods. I actually foresee within my lifetime that the concept of a polling place and taking time out of the day to vote somewhere is going to be a thing of the past as absentee voting gains more support.

And like I said, I really don't see the big issue of why absentee voting is such a scary thing.

So until next time, in the immortal words of Edward R. Murrow, "Good night and good luck".