Covid-19, Making Americans Vote by Mail

The looming coronavirus pandemic will prevent many American voters from physically showing up to the polls in fear of getting others sick, or catching the virus. It’s understandable that Americans will mail in their voting ballots when the November Presidential election gets here, especially if a cure for Covid-19 hasn’t been discovered. Implementing a mandatory vote by mail election is not out of the question in order to prevent the spread of Covid-19, although there have been issues identified with changing the voting process to vote by mail.

U.S. Postal Service Vote By Mail Issue

The issue ahead of the presidential election is that new U.S. Postal Service changes by Postmaster General Luis DeJoy may slow down mail delivery. This would cause many votes to not be counted, as mail-in ballots received after the deadline, will not count. The postal service does not need to abandon their given motto of, “Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds”.

Statistically, the amount of mail in ballots the Postal Service will receive will be greater than any other year. With the average of 1% of mail-in ballots not being counted in previous elections, one can guess that this number will be greater, as the changes implemented to the U.S. Postal Service will hinder their excellent delivery rate. The ratio of rejected mail-in ballots may go as high as 5% – 7% or greater in worst case scenarios especially if the acceptance of slowing down the delivery of mail. Or maybe not!

How to Solve Mail-In Ballot Issues for Presidential Election

The U.S. Postal Service has options, but like any semi quasi-government agency, change is slow to come by. Logistically, the Postal Service can stop the mailing of non-essential mail, such as paper advertising mail, better known as junk mail through the end of October to the beginning of November. Making quick changes to adjust to the upcoming election day, is far more reachable than spending time in congress bickering about whose fault it is, pointing fingers does not and will not solve this problem. Making a change before the elections will give the Postal Service plenty of man/women power to get the ballots delivered on time, and leave non-essential mail behind. Not many people will miss their junk mail. The country won’t mind not receiving junk mail for a good week, besides, a good majority of Americans believe the Presidential election is way more important than receiving their $5 coupon to go shop at Walmart, that can wait. So to prevent the event of an increase in rejected mail in ballots, the Postal Service should stop delivering junk mail for a couple of weeks before the election.

Speaking of money, with the increase that will happen with mail-in votes, the U.S. Postal Service should see an increase in revenue while millions of citizens register to vote by mail, request a ballot by mail, then mail in their completed ballots. One has to admit, that will be a lot for our hard working postal service to handle, and with the changes of leaving mail until the next day, something has to give before the elections get here. Every vote should count, especially if someone took the extra effort to fill out their ballot and then mail it in. At AdMail, we are all about giving up paper junk mail, so if that is to preserve the validity of the upcoming great Presidential Election of 2020, between President Donald Trump and Joe Biden, by all means, we wholly suggest giving up junk mail for the weeks preceding the election.