[specialist]

Unreturned (uncast) ballots are not "missing".

USPS's UAA (undelivered as addressed) rate for first class mail is ~1%. Both ways. Something for postal ballot advocates to consider. Make sure your jurisdictions have online ballot trackers.

[smitty1e]

No, no, no.

These "improvements" are anything but.

If we value the integrity of our elections, we need to minimize the amount of metadata generated.

You need:

- a small pollbook of legal voters

- a location for those voters to obtain and secretly mark a paper ballot

- a means to cast that ballot and tally that polling place's numbers

- a chain of custody for all ballots that protects the election's legitimacy

Elections, and the political power that they grant, demand that we curb our natural tendency to over-engineer systems.

The more shiny, spiffy gadgets and doo-dads we apply to this process, the greater the harm its legitimacy.

If you want, I can flog this dead horse all the way down to glue.

[cy_hauser]

> - a location for those voters to obtain and secretly mark a paper ballot

But then how do you get more poor and minority folks to vote? These are the people harmed by not having mail in (or more appropriately called "time free" voting.

Don't we want more participation? Especially by those who find current rules end in a trade-off of wages for the ability to vote?

[specialist]

During the aughts, my small cadre opposed "vote by mail" (100% postal ballots, limited in person voting) because we believed it'd disenfranchise the poor, minorities, and students.

Anecdotally, because we had trouble accessing the relevant data, we reasoned those populations are more mobile, with inferior mail service, so postal balloting faces more challenges.

Until very recently, it seemed as though our predictions were proving true.

However, in my jurisdiction, since 2016, both voter registration and participation has increased, seemingly durably. I dare not hope, for fear of jinxing it, these trends continue.

Fast forward to today. I'm very worried about 2020. For so many reasons.

I've always supported postal balloting such that it enfranchises people who would otherwise be disenfranchised. (Postal balloting was invented for people serving in the military and otherwise wouldn't be able to vote.)

So during this pandemic I don't see any other choice than to permit postal balloting for any and all (on demand, no justification necessary).

But knowing firsthand the challenges my jurisdiction had with a gradual well funded switch over, it's going to be a nationwide fubar. Especially in non-urban counties without the institutional knowledge.

Now, more than ever, we need to pour resources into election administration. And managing expectations. For example, final results are going to take A LOT longer, so people (especially media) should be prepared to wait.

[smitty1e]

Smaller pollbooks, preferably within walking distance of home.

There are legitimate reasons to vote early. Allow people to cast a ballot at a secure location beforehand.

Election integrity and maximizing participation are both goals, but the former is more important.

And if you're an adult, and circumstances force you to move around the time of an election, add managing your voter registration into your task list.

We can all agree that database maintenance is hard. So own your entry in the pollbook like an adult.

This is, arguably, a simple competence check for casting the ballot.

[specialist]

Preaching to the choir. :)

I opposed going all vote by mail.

Inspection of the actual gear and procedures shows postal balloting is worse than touchscreens, election integrity wise.

Sadly, I lost. Too much money is involved for me alone to stop this gravy train.

I did get some minor concessions from my election administrators, so that auditing and recounts would remain feasible, as required by our laws.

[smitty1e]

We need to broadcast the folly if vote-by-mail far and wide.

In defense of vote-by-mail proponents, if the voters are stupid enough to permit this folly to unfold, then I'm ready to blame the victims.

[specialist]

FWIW, my #1 lesson learned from my activism failures is:

Have an affirmative agenda.

Offense over defense. It's just so much harder to oppose stuff. Especially if you have an end goal. Like pushing rope.

If I could do it all over again, I would have started a "citizen owned elections" effort.

Creating an open source software and hardware stack, model legislation (for the policies, laws, rules, regulations, procedures), and educational materials (messaging, talking points, explainers).

I went all across my state with the "citizen owned elections" notion. It was a 90/10 issue. Broad support across Dems, GOP, Greens, good govt groups, etc.

Alas.