In a rather candid interview with Fox News earlier this week, President Donald Trump expressed his revulsion toward the twenty-five-billion-dollar funding request needed to save the United States Postal Service, arguing that universal mail-in voting will lead to voter fraud in the upcoming presidential election. Several of the President's tweets have supported his uninformed point of view; he has suggested that "the honorable thing to do is drop the Mail-In Scam before it is too late," thus perpetuating the false claim that mail-in voting is unreliable and ineffective, despite being the primary mode of voting in states such as Oregon, California, and Colorado, according to the MIT Election Data + Science Lab.
As a nation currently in the midst of navigating an unprecedented global pandemic, it is important to understand how vote-by-mail affects our elections and the harm that will befall our country if President Trump succeeds in blocking its funding.
Since 1998, Oregon has issued all its voting ballots by mail, allowing voters the option to either return their ballots by mail or to return them in person. States such as California and Colorado have also boasted large numbers of mail-in voters in more recent years. Of course, one cannot argue the possibility of voter fraud when ballots are not cast in person on a given election day. However, it has actually been proven to increase voter turnout, since "it does a good job of retaining existing voters," according to a study done by Adam J. Berinsky, Nancy Burns, and Michael W. Traugott. To further disprove false claims of widespread vote-by-mail voter fraud, the MIT Election Data and Science Lab revealed that there have only been 143 cases of voter fraud related to voting by mail in the last twenty years, despite more than 250 million ballots cast.
Trump is wrong in saying that voting by mail perpetuates voter fraud – it is instead a vehicle that allows citizens to exercise their right to vote from the comfort and safety of their own homes. This kind of innovation is incredibly important in times like these, when immuno-compromised Americans are potentially risking their lives just to cast an in-person ballot. To de-fund the United States Postal Service is, simply put, to silence the voices of millions of Americans.
If the USPS does not receive the stimulus it needs from Congress, millions of Americans will be left without a voice. Already, mailboxes across the nation are being removed or locked up. It is interesting to note, however, that all three of the aforementioned states that rely most heavily on mail-in voting (Oregon, California, and Colorado) are, in the last twenty or so years, predominantly left-leaning ("blue" states). Does this mean that Trump is specifically targeting those states in which he has less reach in an attempt to influence this year's presidential election?
It is more than likely.
Donald Trump is threatening our country's democracy. He is blatantly targeting a proven method of voting, thus putting the welfare of all Americans on the line. Please, vote wisely in November, and if you are planning on voting by mail, be sure to cast your ballot with time to spare.
Sources:
https://electionlab.mit.edu/research/voting-mail-and-absentee-voting
