Campaigns will drive the absentee numbers even higher. Rather than sending out armies of volunteers to knock on doors, both parties will reallocate resources to reaching people online or by phone and help them register for absentee ballots.
The surge in ballots is coming. We must improve the current vote-by-mail system so that it’s reliable, secure, and scaled for tens of millions of ballots — and we only have a few months to pull it off.
This leads to the real question for Congress and for Trump: How are they going to help the states prepare? Theoretical opposition to mail-in voting is beside the point. Reporters should stop asking Republicans – especially Trump – him if they support voting by mail. They should ask instead: what practical steps are they taking to make sure states have the resources they need to hold secure, safe, and healthy elections?
When the president and congressional Republicans are preparing their answers, they should look to the states that implemented vote-by-mail years ago. Utah uses vote-by-mail exclusively, and is no one’s idea of a blue state.
