CBS News: Vote-by-mail experiment reveals potential problems within postal voting system ahead of November election

Vote-by-mail experiment reveals potential problems within postal voting system ahead of November election
CBS News. July 24, 2020, 8:58 AM

Many Americans are expected to vote by mail for the first time in November 2020 because of coronavirus concerns, so "CBS This Morning" sent out 100 mock ballots, simulating 100 voters in locations across Philadelphia, in an experiment to see how long one should give themselves to make sure their vote counts.
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For the experiment, a P.O. box was set up to represent a local election office. A few days after the initial ballots were mailed, 100 more were sent.

The mock ballots used the same size envelope and same class of mail as real ballots, and even had mock votes folded in to approximate the weight. The biggest difference: real mail-in ballots have a logo that is meant to expedite them. "CBS This Morning" was unable to include [it in] the trial.

A week after initial ballots were sent, most ballots appeared to be missing from the P.O. box.
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Out of the initial batch mailed a week earlier, 97 out of 100 votes had arrived. Three simulated persons, or 3% of voters, were effectively disenfranchised by mail by giving their ballots a week to arrive. In a close election, 3% could be pivotal.

Four days after mailing the second batch of mock ballots, 21% of the votes hadn't arrived.

Needless to say, I am not surprised by this. And neither are the Philadelphia residents CBS interviewed. In the video, everybody interviewed said that they wouldn't trust the post office with something as important as their vote. Election officials work very hard to make sure they count every vote they receive by the deadline, but they have no way to make sure the ballots are delivered to them on time.

I, myself, have had critical mail go missing. Not a vote, but one of my estimated tax payments went missing last year. I had to have my bank issue a stop-payment on the cheque and mail another. I'm just glad the government didn't force me to pay a penalty after that screw-up.

My advice to you:

• If you have to mail something important, send it two weeks before it needs to arrive. Consider paying for a return receipt (as proof that it was delivered) and/or sending it priority mail in order to increase the odds of on-time delivery.
• Vote in person. I know everybody is worried about getting the coronavirus, but unless you're in a high-risk category, the risk is going to be very low. Especially if you keep your distance from others. I don't know about all locations, but where I live, polling places enforce social distancing. It's less risky than going to the grocery store. If you're OK with going out shopping, then you should be OK with going to vote.