2020, the year everyone was so excited for, but once we reached it everything went downhill. A global pandemic, wildfires, and election year. This year, I think mail-in ballots would be very beneficial in many ways as we are still in a pandemic and people don’t feel safe going in public or touching things other people have touched.

The only question is, should mail-in ballots be allowed? There are both benefits and worries to this question, and it is a difficult one. After asking Senior Sydney O’Connell and my mom, Mary Lee Hoffman, their opinions, they both believe that mail-in ballots should be allowed, but they also see the dangers of it.

Sydney says, “I think mail-in ballots should be allowed because they’re more cost-effective and safer especially because of covid.” She does see the dangers of mailing in ballots by acknowledging tampering from either party, but she also does state that the benefits are “there are fewer people waiting in lines ie less risk of people catching covid especially in states where there aren’t mask mandates” which is all so true.

My mother agrees with mail-in ballots also, saying, “I think mail-in ballots are a good option for voters who are elderly or immunocompromised especially during the current pandemic.” While she does mention that there could always be trust issues with the mailing system, she also feels that “the importance of voting as an American cannot be denied and the benefit outweighs the risk.”

There are many excellent advantages to mail-in voting according to the League of Women’s Voters of Chicago (https://my.lwv.org/illinois/chicago/article/pros-cons-mail-voting), “Citizens can vote at home and take all the time they need to study the issues. Voters often express enthusiasm for all-mail elections.” which I think would be very nice to not have as much pressure to have a decision made by the time early voting or November 3rd comes. They also state that there are financial savings like Sydney stated because there would be no need to hire staff for traditional polling places. There are still disadvantages though that LWV of Chicago states, such as “slow vote-counting” because the people cannot count 300 million ballots if everyone hypothetically mails in their ballot.

According to MarketWatch (https://www.marketwatch.com/story/heres-the-truth-about-mail-in-voting-fair-safe-and-honest-11594920269), “Voter fraud is rare, and rarer by mail” because election administrators immediately notice and take action. MarketWatch also states, only 204 allegations, and 143 convictions, involved mail-in ballots. That is a tiny fraction of the roughly 250 million mail-in ballots cast over those two decades. In addition, problems are extremely rare in states that rely primarily on vote by mail.”

In conclusion, I think voting by mail would be a better way of voting. More money would be saved, people are less at risk, and people feel like their votes are kept a little safer.