April 21, 2022
VOTE SAFE IN 2022
Part #2— Weighing Your Voter Options
Political parties enthusiastically encourage you to fill out your vote by mail (VBM) ballot the moment you receive it, seal it into the return envelope, sign it and put it immediately back into the U.S. mail.
This advice benefits THEM (or so they believe). This is their rationale:
- The sooner you return your vote, the sooner they can remove you from their outreach list, thus saving them Get Out the Vote expenditures and volunteer time.
- The sooner you return your vote the less likely it is that you will “forget” to vote. They assume (perhaps correctly) that voter turnout will thus be greater.
But does following this advice benefit you? Does it promote election integrity?
- The sooner you return your vote, the more likely it is that you will vote early and emotionally, without being fully informed.
- When you return your ballot in an envelope with your name and address clearly visible, you are, in effect, waiving your right to a secret ballot, as you, the voter, are clearly identifiable. You are also subjecting your ballot to innumerable opportunities for potential manipulation as it passes through hundreds of hands of postal workers, seasonal elections officials, ballot traffickers and signature verifiers.
- Even after the ballot is removed from the identifying envelope, it is subjected to intense inspection and potential duplication or adjudication before it finally can be tabulated. It takes DAYS before your ballot—potentially transformed in some way—is finally fully “processed”.
EIPCa recommends that you NOT put your ballot in the return envelope.
You have another, safer choice– one that assures your ballot is secure and protected, one that assures it passes through the fewest possible hands, one that counts your ballot (with no processing) on the day you cast it. That choice is to be a VIP—Voter In Person.
Regardless of what candidates, party officials, elections officials or even the governor himself tell you, California is NOT an “All Vote by Mail State”!!
That bears repeating: California is NOT an “All Vote by Mail State”!! With very few exceptions, all California voters STILL have the right and ample opportunity to VOTE IN PERSON.
Granted, sending your ballot off with the flick of a wrist may be more “convenient”, but we ask that you weigh the cost-benefit of the choice.
Find the details of how, when and where to Vote in Person in future parts of the Vote Smart 2022 series.
EIPCa is a nonpartisan 501(c)(3) charity. Contributions are tax deductible.
https://www.eip-ca.com/donate/
Linda Paine, President and Co-founder,
Election Integrity Project®California
Election Integrity Project® California
is a nonprofit public benefit organization
https://www.eip-ca.com
Please consider donating to the work of
Election Integrity Project®California.
EIPCa Corporate Office, 27943 Seco Canyon Road #521, Santa Clarita, CA 91350, United States
