Pearl River As Trump continues to flail at mail ballots without evidence, claiming the way that one-third of the US votes is somehow not secure and contributes to questionable results, the beat goes on. His executive order has been barred by federal judges and is headed to the Supreme Court. North Carolina has already mailed 40,000 ballots, proceeding as planned. The bipartisan election commission in Wisconsin, another swing state, has given the go ahead and mailing has begun there as well. Almost twenty other states are scheduled to mail their ballots for the midterms by September 19th, so time is running out on the clock for Trump to upend mail ballots.
Some reports indicate that he may have already clocked out. Counties in Florida for example. in trying to follow the dictates of Trump’s executive order, as you might expect, created mail-in envelopes with the required barcode to enable tracking. When they duly submitted the envelopes to the post office for approval, they were rejected. Now they no longer have time, if they wanted to comply, to change the envelopes. They worry that in fact they may not get the ballots out on time at all, disenfranchising millions of voters.
Like President Trump, I vote by mail ballot. Normally, I do so, because I travel. This year the election is on November 3rd. I could vote in person, because I don’t’ fly to Glasgow for our international organizers’ meeting until the 4th, but I can’t believe that the odds don’t continue to favor me, because of the double standard that my age alone gives me an entitlement to a mail ballot.
Interestingly, the issue has been raised about whether letting only seniors use mail ballots would be unconstitutional. In Louisiana, non-seniors, not yet blessed to make it to 65, are allowed to properly apply for a mail ballot, if they are traveling or have work conflicts. An analysis in the Times noted a decision by an appeals court involving a South Carolina policy, which only allowed mail ballots exclusively for seniors. They ruled that South Carolina was discriminating against other voters, who should have an equal right to vote by mail. The ruling was based on the 26th amendment in 1971 giving 18-year-olds the right to vote which “shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of age.” Count on the arch-conservative Fifth Circuit, based in New Orleans, to have ruled differently in a Texas case, making resolving this difference something that the Supreme Court would have to settle. Other judges have wondered whether a state could discriminate in other ways, like only allowing white voters to use mail ballots. If one discrimination is allowed to erode the 26th amendment, where does it stop?
As usual, the administration has appealed to the Supremes to get rid of the injunctions against his executive order. The clock may save the midterms, but that doesn’t mean mail voting is protected in the future.