Voting-in person or mail?

Politics & Elections
21

As @PhillyGuy said so well, it depends on what your goal is. It’s also unclear from your OP whether you mean to ask what’s best for an individual or what’s best for the entire electorate.

Assuming you meant what’s best for one individual person …

I’d rank them by convenience as:

    Mail first, early in-person voting second by a small margin, and in-person on Election Day dead last by a mile.

I’d rank them by likelihood of me screwing up and not having my vote count as:

    In-person on Election Day most likely, and the other two (mail and early in-person voting) a tie.

    For primary elections, one of the risks of early voting (mail or in-person) is entering your vote then having your chosen candidate drop out before the primary election day. Balanced of course by the risk of you forgetting to actually vote before the deadline.

    For general elections the risk of surprise is just about zero, so there’s no upside to waiting to near the deadline. Get it done ASAP.

I’d rank them by likelihood of somebody else screwing up and not having my vote count as:

    Mail most likely, early in-person voting second by a large margin, and in-person on Election Day last, but only by a small margin.

    This ranking is just based on how many steps have to go right. Or said another way, how many opportunities for error there are and how much time passes between my last touching my ballot and the vote being registered for each method.

I’d rank them by likelihood of deliberate tampering preventing my vote from being counted as:

    Mail most likely, early in-person voting second but just barely second by a small margin, and in-person on Election Day last by a large margin.

    Like with honest screw-ups, this ranking is mostly based on how many opportunities there are for skullduggery plus how many choke points permit mass-production skullduggery. Big difference between one angry mail carrier throwing away a few ballots they collected some days from neighborhoods likely to vote the “wrong” way in their opinion, versus some operatives being able to enter an election authority warehouse and examine and dispose of likely unfavorable ballots en masse at their leisure.


So which problem is the OP / us trying to solve?

As to me …

Prior to 2020 I never considered the security / skullduggery aspects at all. My sole considerations were convenience and avoiding the last chance single point of failure of me being unable to vote in person on Election day because of whatever random reason.

In 2020 I was somewhat concerned about ballot security / election rigging.

I’m about the same amount concerned in 2024 since it’s thousands of county-level local authorities, not the Biden administration, that are running these elections. Although the general public awareness of the likelihood of organized tampering is much higher than it was going into 2020, so that’s a mitigating factor.

If Biden wins and the Ds do well in Congress, the ballot security problem will be solved by 2028. If trump and the Rs win, the problem will be solved a different way: there won’t be 2028 elections.

22

I am a fan of early voting in person.

I also believe that early votes should be counted and publicly reported, as I believe that would help drive participation.

23

I’m physically fine, so I much prefer going to vote in person. I do like the option, though, because we have people like seniors or the disabled that really need to vote by mail. Their voices need to be heard, also.

24

Do you mean report just the total quantity of votes, or the results of those votes? (e.g. “1000 people voted” versus “450 people voted for Biden and 550 voted for trump totaling 1000”)

If the latter, that will cause whoever takes an early lead to receive an exaggerated total win as supporters of the trailing candidate choose to not bother voting since their candidate already lost in their minds. The effect is to suppress turnout, not improve it. And especially suppress turnout for whoever is trailing. Which factor can immediate be put to partisan use by corrupt election authorities quickly counting ballots from favorable precincts and slow-rolling the counting of ballots from the “wrong” precincts.

The is a common effect on Election Day where the media reports early totals and support for the trail collapses mid day. Same for national elections where the election is reported as decided about dinner time on the east coast while half the country’s polling places are open for 3 or 4 more hours.

The traditional media has gotten better about slow-rolling their results for that reason, while the non-traditional propaganda outfits have become expert at exploiting this situation.

IMO the last thing we need to do is add another official point where the evil bastards can work their evil magic on our easily bamboozled populace.

25

Our advanced poll ballot boxes are sealed and counted after the polls close on election day, so they could tell the public what the turnout was but that’s it.

It also helps that our elections are run by non-partisan agencies and not a Secretary of State or similar. I’ve never had a concern my ballot wouldn’t be counted.

26

I don’t understand, are you concerned about the trustworthiness of local elections officials in swing states? Who is “harvesting” mail in ballots?

27

We vote “by mail” but take our ballots to the county voter registration office and drop them off in person for verification that they have been received.

28

I’d prefer to have by mail, early in person, and in person on the day all available.

And for those who think by mail is the only way to research your vote beforehand: in NY, at least, you can see a sample ballot online, and print one if you want, to guide your research (it’ll say “sample” all across it, so you couldn’t actually use it to vote.) Check your local Board of Elections site. I expect you can also get one in person or maybe even mailed to you, though I’ve never tried.

29

That’s a good point. And I should not be discouraging people from voting via mail, that was kind of thoughtless of me.

Where we are, the early voting option means not having to stand in line. Or not long lines at any rate. Helps that I have so much flexibility at my job, no one minds if I disappear for 45 minutes as long as my work gets done.

30

And at least where I live, there are dropboxes for ballots at various locations (public library, town hall, etc). So you can still vote by mail but avoid mailing it back.

31

In Pennsylvania, or at least in my town:

– There is no in person early voting.

– You get an email when your mail in (or dropbox) ballot is received at the county courthouse, and, if not received, you can vote in person on election day.

– There is someone at the drop box checking to make sure that you are not turning in a ballot on behalf of someone else, like your spouse who asked you to mail their sealed ballot. The only exception is for voters meeting a legal definition of disabled, and you have to submit a form. “Any false statement made herein is punishable under 18 Pa.C.S. § 4904.”

P.S. Our last governor violated the drop box in-person law and got away with it. But what if my wife and I accidentally try to drop box each other’s ballot, and the checker at the drop box believes in enforcing all laws? I avoid that scene.

32

Same here. I also like that you can get notifications about your ballot, whether it was received or counted. It’s opt-in, you won’t be spammed if you don’t care.

I voted in person before we could do it by mail. The process was very similar; you get a ballot, fill in the circles like a multiple choice test in school, put it in an envelope and sign, then drop it in a box. Except I did all that at a polling place and not at home or work or any other place or time I wanted. These days we do the same process but can either drop off the ballot in a mailbox or a ballot drop box at various places.

I was still good about participating in every election back when it was done in person but it was a lot more stressful and inconvenient. Now it’s easier. I 100% support mail in ballots and don’t see any objective reason not to.

33

There’s significantly less likelihood of mail being misdirected when senders use the ZIP+4 code. The sortation software is not going the have the same +4 on both Lake St. and Lake Ave.

ETA: Also, election mail that you send in is all going to go to a ballot repository-type address. (If you know a neighbor who received a completed ballot from another voter, I’d like to hear about it. I’m not speaking on behalf of the USPS, of course; I just think it would be a hilarious story.)

34

Sort of mail. The state (Colorado) sends us our ballots. We look at the options, think about it and vote.

Then, we don’t mail them back, we take them to a secure drop off box specifically made for ballots at the county gov.

35

Same here. By “in person,” I meant that our sealed ballot envelopes are physically handed to a county worker at the voter registration office. We then receive an email verifying receipt. The ballots are not actually opened until election day.

It’s just to ensure they aren’t lost in the mail. Yes, it’s a little paranoid, but with that DeJoy guy as Postmaster General, we don’t entirely trust the USPS. We live only a few miles from the county office, so it’s pretty convenient.

36

It depends who you trust more: the USPS or your county elections department. For me, it’s a wash, so I do whatever is most convenient.

37

Hereabouts the collection bins that go in the dropboxes are sealed with a numbered tag which is logged going out and coming back in. Also, when they’re out of the elections office they’re handled by a team rather than by a single person. So I think I’d have more confidence in the elections office.

38

At some point you have to trust in your elections officials, who are charged with administering the state’s election laws. And whose procedures are dictated by those laws and whose work is continually observed and then extensively audited.

Not just on game day, either. How they register voters, how they administer registration irregularities, how they notify voters of procedural changes for upcoming elections, how their technology functions, it’s all looked at by people whose jobs are to constantly look at it.

Those systems are generally pretty tight these days which is why Republican investigations into systemic cheating usually produce jack shit.

39

Covid and living overseas were the only times I didn’t vote in person. I will continue to vote in person unless something changes.

40

I’m another in a state where everyone votes by mail. Or dropbox, tf that’s what you want to do. Which, in fact, most people do. And we’ve been doing all-vote-by-mail for 25 years now.

One advantage of mail voting has not been discussed above. It’s not just convenience, but being able to do research as you vote. You’re probably sure who you will vote for for the high level offices or the MP of whatever party, but what about the local offices: mayors, council members, school board members? If you’re like me, you probably have little knowledge about those candidates. But voting in the comfort of your own home, you can google the various candidtates and at least get an idea of who is best to vote for. Yeah, you may be able to do that in the voting booth, but chances are you won’t. Ditto for doing it ahead of time.