While everyone has heard by now that the elections for the next President of the United States will officially take place on November 3, the voting process is already underway. This development is due to this year’s larger-than-usual reliance on absentee ballots.
Besides being an election year, 2020 will definitely go down in the US history books as a dark time of tragedy and loss, thanks to the coronavirus pandemic. The United States has seen the largest, deadliest spread of the disease in the world. There have been over 6.2 million Covid-19 cases in the US, and more than 185,000 Americans have died from the virus this year.
Although in recent weeks the number of daily infections has been decreasing, it is still around 40,000 on average, which is quite high. Thus, it is recommended to avoid all sorts of public gatherings and practice social distancing instead.
As a result, organizing an election in these conditions becomes quite difficult. In-person voting would mean crowding near the voting stations. It can also be extremely slow if all voters have to maintain a distance and go in one by one. In other words, asking millions of US voters to show up on November 3 is essentially inviting them to expose themselves to higher risks of contracting a deadly virus.
To avoid that, this year it’s been proposed that more people use the mail-in voting system. This process works by people registering as absentee voters, getting ballots sent to their homes, filling them in at home, and then mailing them back.
Because this entire procedure could take weeks, states like North Carolina are now beginning the process of sending out ballots to registered absentee voters. Generally speaking, the earlier the voting begins, the earlier it can produce results. But each state has its own deadlines, and experts predict that a large number of votes will not be counted by November 3. It could take days, and even weeks after Election Day to actually have official results as to who won.
Absentee ballots have been used in every election - mostly by Americans living abroad, or those unable to vote in person for other reasons. But they have never comprised such a high percentage of the total votes as they are expected to do in 2020.
Incumbent President and common subscriber to conspiracy theories Donald Trump has already started undermining the validity of this election as a whole, especially when it comes to mail-in votes. In fact, he encouraged North Carolinians to vote twice - once via mail, and a second time in person, supposedly to check if votes are accurately counted. However, voting twice is actually a crime, so the President is encouraging people to commit voter fraud.
Trump has also stated that there is “no way” for him to lose the election, unless the outcome is “rigged.” His statements have dangerous implications, as they might instigate his millions of supporters to refuse to accept the results of the election if Trump loses. This could in turn pave the way for weeks of unrest across the United States and more volatility in stock indices and the dollar.
