Voting by mail is too risky. Let’s keep the election system we have | Letter to the editor

Think mandatory mailing of ballots is a swell idea? Think it will somehow improve the integrity of the current system? You might want to consider the following.

First, let’s put this to bed: Absentee ballots are always a choice for those who, for some reason or the other, cannot make it to the polls. That pretty much kills the argument that the current system creates a hardship for or suppresses voters.

No evidence of voter fraud in mailing ballots? Just roll it out and the possibilities are countless.

Now let’s list some legit examples of scenarios one might see with mandatory mailing of ballots.

As seen in the stimulus checks, thousands were sent to dead people. Precincts very often don’t clean up their voter rolls so think of all the tens of thousands of ballots nationwide that would be sent to individuals who don’t exist any longer. Would it be naïve to suggest that a good percentage might get acted on by others (family, neighbors, residents) who currently live at that address?

We are a mobile society. People change residences. Will that ballot be forwarded or, perhaps, the current resident would like to vote for the previous occupant?

What if the recipient of the ballot is mentally handicapped (Alzheimer’s, stroke, etc.), or resides in a nursing home or an ALF? Who’s to say their caretaker won’t take the liberty to vote on their behalf? One activist employee could turn a whole nursing home blue or red without accountability.

The current system allows for complete privacy in casting your vote without someone looking over your shoulder. Having multiple ballots under the same roof could be problematic. Spouses of opposite parties will be fighting over or attempting to intimidate the other. Apathetic voters could either surrender or sell their votes to others.

Then there is the U.S. Postal Service in general. I love my postman, Ralph, he does a great job but anyone out there ever get someone else’s mail or, have you ever sent something that inexplicably never gets to its destination? Just the logistics of getting the ballot from point A to point B and back again is ripe with possibilities of failure. Who hasn’t heard the stories of sacks of mail either stolen, misplaced or discarded?

The system has worked well for decades and there are mechanisms in place for citizens who cannot make it to the polls. Let’s don’t tempt fate and fix what is not broken.

Mark Mullen

Bradenton