More and more local voters continue to request absentee ballots despite growing concerns surrounding mail-in voting.
In fact, more than three times the number of Johnson County voters who typically vote by mail have already requested absentee ballots — and we’re still two months out from the election.
As of Wednesday, nearly 3,400 Johnson County voters have requested absentee ballots, said Trena McLaughlin, county clerk. Of those, most are requesting mail-in ballots because they are 65 or older, confined to their homes or will be out of town on Election Day, McLaughlin said. Staff at the county’s Voter Registration office are already calling voters who did not select a reason — a requirement that was waived during the postponed primary — to inform them they have to have a valid reason to do so during the general election this fall.
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Voters are calling, too.
“A lot of people are still calling in and asking if they have to have a reason to vote by mail, and we’re telling them yes, you do have to have a reason,” McLaughlin said.
“At this point, I don’t want to say I recommend it. We’re leaving it up to the voter,” she said of mail-in voting.
Since the spring, when the coronavirus pandemic first made its way to Johnson County, local election officials had been encouraging voters to vote by mail.
But state officials, including Gov. Eric Holcomb and the Indiana Election Commission, have made it clear they will not extend no-excuse voting by mail to anyone during the general election, as they did during the primary. Indiana is among a handful of states where residents need to have a valid reason why they can’t vote in person. A registered voter can also get an absentee ballot if they will be gone or working during all 12 hours that the polls are open. Thirty-four states have no-excuse voting by mail.
The deadline to apply for an absentee ballot is still about two months out, and local election officials aren’t sure what exactly the November election will look like. But that hasn’t deterred voters, who have until Oct. 22 to apply. Voter registration staff will begin mailing out ballots the first week of September, once the ballot is set next week.
One concern nationally has been the U.S. Postal Service’s ability to get all absentee ballots to county clerk’s offices before the noon deadline on Election Day.
The postal service is warning states coast to coast — including Indiana — that it cannot guarantee all ballots cast by mail for the November election will arrive in time to be counted, even if mailed by state deadlines, raising the possibility that millions of voters could be disenfranchised, according to the The Associated Press.
Voters and lawmakers in several states are also complaining that some curbside mail collection boxes are being removed.
Even as President Donald Trump rails against wide-scale voting by mail, the post office is bracing for an unprecedented number of mail-in ballots as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
The warning letters sent to states raise the possibility that many Americans eligible for mail-in ballots this fall will not have them counted. But that is not the intent, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said in his own letter to Democratic congressional leaders.
The post office is merely “asking elected officials and voters to realistically consider how the mail works, and be mindful of our delivery standards, in order to provide voters ample time to cast ballots through the mail,” wrote DeJoy, a prominent Trump political donor who was recently appointed. The warning letters were first reported by The Washington Post.
In a statement Wednesday, DeJoy said post office retail hours will not change, mail processing equipment and blue collection boxes will remain where they are, no mail processing facilities will be closed, and overtime will continue to be approved as needed. In addition, effective Oct. 1, the postal service will engage standby resources in all areas, including transportation, to satisfy any unforeseen demand, according to the letter.
“The United States Postal Service will play a critical role this year in delivering election mail for millions of voters across the country,” the letter said. “There has been a lot of discussion recently about whether the postal service is ready, willing and able to meet this challenge.”
It likely won’t be an issue locally, McLaughlin said.
“I did talk to a local post office official and he assured me that any envelopes pertaining to the election would be filed separately and delivered to us daily,” McLaughlin said.
Another concern — locally and nationally — is the ability to adequately staff the polls on Election Day due to the pandemic.
The county plans to operate 22 vote centers on Election Day, more than double what was available on Election Day during the primary, and two more than were available on Election Day during the 2016 general election. That year, nearly 68,000 residents — or 63% of registered voters — cast ballots.
During the primary, 10,377 voters cast ballots by mail — compared to about 1,000 or less typically — and 12,360 voted in person. McLaughlin expects absentee and in-person voting will break records in the general election, even amid the pandemic, she said. But so far, local party officials, whose job it is to rally poll workers, haven’t given her any reason to believe they may not be able to staff all of the vote centers on Election Day, “unless the pandemic gets worse,” she said.
Her biggest concern so far has been securing enough extra poll workers to help count mail-in ballots at the Johnson County courthouse. She is hoping to bring on 10 workers from each major party for that job. Indiana law prohibits processing mail-in ballots before Election Day, so votes can’t be counted until Nov. 3.
The Johnson County Board of Commissioners last week approved the purchase of an additional reader from MicroVote, the county’s vendor, to count ballots on Election Day. It will cost about $1,000, said McLaughlin, who requested it due to the thousands of absentee ballots she expects will need to be counted on Election Day.
The Johnson County Election Board is set to meet again Sept. 8 to approve the list of vote centers. Neither Johnson Memorial Hospital nor Johnson County REMC will be used in the upcoming election due to the pandemic, McLaughlin said. The board will also consider any additional changes that may need to be made at that time.
