US presidential elections 2020: All you want to know about mail-in voting

TIMESOFINDIA.COM | Sep 7, 2020, 10:03 IST

WASHINGTON: The US election is officially open: North Carolina on Friday launched vote-by-mail operations for the November 3 contest between President Donald Trump and Democrat Joe Biden, which is getting uglier by the hour.
With two months until Election Day, Trump is seizing on fears over violent protests in US cities and questioning the integrity of voting by mail, while challenger Biden intensified his criticism of a "deplorable" leader who he said is not fit for office.

What is mail-in voting?
Mail-in voting means to cast your vote and sending it through mail. There are two types of such voting: Absentee voting and mail-in voting.An absentee vote is a vote that is cast outside of a polling booth where the concerned authorities send the ballot to your home so that you are able to cast your vote. But the reasons for absentee voting are very limited, like being sick or out of the city. In mail-in option, the authorties in many states send ballots to the voters based on the request of the voter who wants to exercise this option. The ballot is after voting sent back to the authorities and you do not neccesarily need to provide a reason.
Drop box option
Another front in the voting battle is the dedicated election drop box, a sealed, sturdily built receptacle that has been a popular option for voters who prefer mail ballots but don't want to return them via the USPS. Election officials collect those ballots and take them to polling locations for counting.Election officials in South Carolina, Florida, Virginia, Pennsylvania and elsewhere are seeking to expand drop-off locations or ease requirements such as those mandating that voters show identification to use them.Those changes have met resistance from Republicans over concerns about fraud. On Monday, Trump turned his fire on drop boxes.“Some states use ‘drop boxes’ for the collection of Universal Mail-In Ballots. So who is going to ‘collect’ the Ballots, and what might be done to them prior to tabulation?” he wrote on Twitter. “A Rigged Election? So bad for our Country.”
The Postal service crisis
The crisis at the Postal Service has erupted as a major election year issue as Louis DeJoy, a Republican donor who took control of the agency in June, has swiftly engineered cuts and operational changes that are disrupting mail delivery operations and raising alarms that Trump is trying to undermine the agency ahead of the election.DeJoy had last week announced that he is halting the planned removal of mail-processing machines and blue collection boxes, as well as an initiative to change retail hours at post offices. He also said no mail processing facilities will be closed and said the agency has not eliminated overtime.One initiative that DeJoy didn't single out in his announcement was the newly imposed constraints on when mail can go out for delivery - a change postal workers have said is fueling delays. The statement also did not specify whether the agency would restore mail-sorting machines that have recently been taken offline.
Why is Trump against mail-in voting?
The 2020 contest promises to be the nation’s largest test of voting by mail. But US President Donald Trump’s relentless attacks on mail balloting, along with cost-cutting that has delayed mail service nationwide, have sown worry and confusion among many voters.Last week, US President Donald Trump warned that the results of the November 3 presidential election could take weeks or months to determine. Amid concerns that a wave of mail-in ballots could overwhelm the post office and local election bodies, Trump suggested the traditional election-night verdict could be delayed.Trump has sought to distinguish between states that provide mail ballots only to voters who request them - including Florida, where Trump himself votes absentee - and those that are moving to conduct their elections entirely by mail, which he claims could lead to widespread cheating.Voting by mail is nothing new in the United States, and Trump himself plans to vote by mail in Florida this year.
Possibility of a fraud?
Trump has repeatedly and baselessly linked mail-in voting to election fraud.Fed by Trump's unfounded insistence that mail-in voting is riddled with fraud, Democrats and other critics say he's trying to undermine this fall's presidential and congressional elections by preventing the Postal Service from delivering ballots in time to be counted.According to the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University, there is no evidence that mail balloting increases electoral fraud as there are several anti-fraud protections built into the process designed to make it difficult to impersonate voters or steal ballots.
Using mail-in voting
Mail voting has grown steadily since the turn of the century. In the 2016 presidential election, mail ballots accounted for 23.6% of all ballots cast, up from 19.2% in 2008, according to the US Election Assistance Commission.Interest has exploded this year as voters have sought to avoid crowded polling places due to the coronavirus pandemic. Mail ballots accounted for 80% of all votes cast in 16 state primaries this year, including Wisconsin, Nevada and Pennsylvania, according to an estimate by Charles Stewart III, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Some states, such as New York, have struggled to handle the crush.