Mail-in ballots, the coronavirus, and a partisan brawl

When it comes to voting, Democrats and Republicans cultivate their own myths. Democrats are sure that there are millions of voters out there who, if it were easy to vote, would vote for them. Republicans are equally sure that if voting is too easy it would lead to a large turnout of people who don’t vote as often and they would never win. Now that the coronavirus has states and citizens looking for safer ways to vote, many states are moving toward mail-in ballots of one form or another. Predictably, the arguments that have emerged about mail ballots have little to do with their utility in a pandemic—obviously, voting by mail is safer than going to a crowded polling place.

Mail-in ballots, in the age of COVID-19, have turned into a partisan brawl which, to no one’s surprise, President Trump started. CONT.

Elaine Kamarck, Brookings Institution


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