Cal Thomas - The trouble with mail-in voting

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Thursday, August 13th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Nick Eicher.

MEGAN BASHAM, HOST: And I’m Megan Basham. Next up, Cal Thomas on the potential for trouble with mail-in voting.

CAL THOMAS, COMMENTATOR: Two weeks ago, I mailed an 8-by-10-inch envelope from a Miami post office to an address in New York state. The postage was correct, as was the address and zip code.

One week passed and the recipient emailed to say the envelope had not arrived, so I mailed another one. Last week, he wrote to say that the second one had arrived. A few days after that he wrote again to say the one mailed earlier had finally been delivered—after a 10-day delay. It should have taken three business days.

Multiply my experience by 100 million and the potential for widespread problems in an all-mail-in election should be obvious.

President Trump has worried about the threat of fraud with all mail-in voting, but that’s not the only issue that should concern us. We only need to look at the current, much-smaller absentee ballot system. 

The New York Daily News reported that some 1.2 million New Yorkers cast absentee ballots in that state’s June primary. But according to a federal judge—quote—”Systematic failures at the state Board of Elections and U.S. Postal Service resulted in nearly 1 in 10 absentee ballots cast in the June 23 primary being invalidated.” 

Some estimates have the number closer to 1 in 5, but either way, we’re talking about more votes than the 2016 president vote differential in Michigan and Pennsylvania combined. 

Many Democrats and the media have claimed the fear over mail-in ballots is misplaced, but the evidence proves otherwise.

In the 2018 congressional election, officials in Broward County, Florida, had trouble finding more than 2,000 ballots. The South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported—quote—”The county’s eternally beleaguered Supervisor of Elections, Brenda Snipes, said they either misplaced, misfiled, or mixed in with another stack.”

And the Associated Press recently reported—quote—”Hundreds of thousands of applications for mail-in ballots that a voter-advocacy group sent to voters in Virginia had the wrong return addresses, adding another complication for state election officials who are already hard-pressed to pull off a smooth election in a pandemic.” 

CBS This Morning ran a small test on mail-in ballots. The program set up a P.O. box and sent 100 mock ballots to it. A few days later the show sent 100 more. Only 97 percent of the first batch arrived after a week and 21 percent of the second batch had not arrived after four days. 

There are many other examples of voting problems in some states—particularly those not already equipped with a robust absentee system. That’s why mail-in balloting should be limited and thoroughly checked. Most voters can practice all the things medical experts tell us to do and vote in person. It is a civic duty and a privilege. 

I’m Cal Thomas.

(Photo/iStock)

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