“Most election officials say there is little effective difference between absentee voting and voting by mail” said a recent AP article in a local paper. This is simply false. Every day there are AP articles, letters to editors, news articles, mail, radio and TV shows that falsely conflate absentee ballots with voting by mail ballots. As a Montana election judge for more than 30 years, I know that these are two very different means of voting during an election.
Since the governor announced guidelines last week enabling counties to adopt mail ballots for the 2020 general election, I expect many Montana counties will adopt mail ballots for the 2020 General Election. Although every mail ballot election increases opportunities for hanky-panky, Montana’s voter rolls and system of controls and checks are among the best in the country.
I encourage everyone to check the status of their own Montana voter registration. Go to https://app.mt.gov/voterinfo/ click Start and type in your name and birthdate as you are registered. Review. You may change your address if necessary. If you wish to vote by absentee ballot, open the Voter Registration Application. Following item 9, see RECEIVE YOUR BALLOT IN THE MAIL, check the box Yes, I request an absentee ballot… and submit. An absentee ballot must be requested by a duly registered voter.
A ballot to vote by mail, on the other hand, is an unsolicited universal ballot that is sent to every person on the voter rolls. Although the federal National Voter Registration Act of 1993 Section 8 obligates states to maintain accuracy of their rolls by removing the names of ineligible voters due to moving, death and other reasons by 90 days prior to each election, many states have failed to comply and the law has not been enforced by the Department of Justice in recent years.
Thus, the U.S. Election Assistance Commission reported that in the 2016 General Election 38 of the 50 states had 462 counties where the number of registered voters exceeded the number of actual citizens over the age of 18 eligible to vote living in those counties by more than 3.55 million! Moreover, this 3.55 million number does not include all ineligible registered persons because surely none of these counties had 100% voter registration and because there are a total of 3,143 counties and county-equivalents in the 50 states and District of Columbia and the report includes only the 462 worst counties. Having nearly four million excess printed ballots mailed out across the country creates enormous opportunities for fraud. Widespread use of mail ballots will further destroy Americans confidence that our elections are fair and balanced.
Moreover, widespread use of mail ballots will delay declaration of election outcomes in numerous legislative, statewide and congressional races and, likely, the presidential race. If the two June congressional races conducted in New York state that still have not been declared are any indication, there also will be lawsuits in many of the states that adopt mail ballots.
Voting is one of our most precious responsibilities and every vote should count. This requires accurate voter rolls. The integrity of our 2020 General Election is under assault by the barrage of misinformation, failure to clean-up voter rolls and scare tactics trying to force mail ballots.
— Jane Lee Hamman, Clancy
