Consider This from NPR - Election FAQs: Postmark Deadlines, Ballot Security And How To Track Your Vote

Episode Date: October 20, 2020

With two weeks until election day and more than 35 million votes already cast, NPR's Miles Parks and Pam Fessler answer your questions about voting, ballots and election security. For more information on voting this year, NPR's Life Kit has a guide to help you out. Read at npr.org or listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.In participating regions, you'll also hear a local news segment that will help you make sense of what's going on in your community.Email us at [e-mail] more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

In some ways, voting is easier this year. For instance, many states have made it easier to get a ballot by mail and return it that way, too, or by dropping it off at a dropbox or a local election office. But in other ways, voting has gotten more complicated. All right, so just to put this all in one place, you will fill out your ballot, fold it in half. Your ballot will go inside of the secrecy envelope. The secrecy envelope with the ballot will go inside of your declaration envelope. In Pennsylvania, local news stations like this one in Pittsburgh have been trying to help people keep track of the state's shifting

ballot requirements. State law requires a ballot be returned in two envelopes, one tucked inside the other. If your ballot is not inside the secrecy envelope, otherwise called a naked ballot, it can't be counted. But that's a new rule. It was only a month ago that individual counties in Pennsylvania could make the call based on state guidance whether to count so-called naked ballots. Then in September, the state Supreme Court said naked ballots are void. Statewide, experts worry that could mean around 100,000 uncounted ballots this November. President Trump won Pennsylvania by 44,000 votes in 2016. And this is not the only Pennsylvania ballot story

that could have huge ramifications for the election. We begin with breaking commitment 2020 coverage and the Supreme Court. This week, the U.S. Supreme Court said the state could count ballots received up to three days after Election Day, as long as they're postmarked November 3rd. Republicans, including President Donald Trump's campaign, have opposed such an extension. They argue it violates federal law. Consider this. From postmarks to signatures, every vote will be scrutinized in this high-stakes election. So we have answers to your questions about how to make sure your ballot is counted. I'm Adi Cornish. It's Tuesday,

October 20th. Support for NPR and the following message come from America Media, producer of the new podcast, Voting Catholic, about what's at stake in the 2020 election from real people who struggle with the issues and bring their faith to the voting booth. Subscribe and listen to Voting Catholic wherever you get your podcasts. Support for NPR and the following message come from UStudio. UStudio securely manages company podcasts.

Easily host and distribute your company's private audio and video content to any device. Start your free 30-day trial at theletterustudio.com. Voting is brutal. And I don't give a damn how you look at it. Is this a man? It was we, the people. The land of the free and the home of the brave. Not we, the white male citizens.

Misrepresentative democracy. A new series about voting in America from NPR's ThruLine. Listen now. In just a second, we'll answer some of your questions about the news, questions that came directly from you. It's something we'd like to do more of in the future. And with the holidays coming up, we want to answer your questions about travel plans, family gatherings, and the holiday season

during the COVID-19 pandemic. To submit, just record an audio file asking your question and email it to us at considerthisatnpr.org. That email address is in our episode notes. It could be about flying, seeing the grandparents, whatever your question, try to keep it to about 20 seconds or less, and we might answer it in an upcoming episode. Again, that's considerthisatnpr.org. And thanks. It's Consider This from NPR. More than 35 million people have already voted this election season.

According to one analysis, 53% of them are Democrats, 36% are Republicans. But that rate of turnout will narrow, experts say, once in-person voting happens. That said, some 40% of voters are expected to vote by mail before election season is over. So in the last few weeks, we asked for your questions about that process and all the complications that come with it. We're going to answer some of them now with NPR's Miles Parks and Pam Fessler. They cover voting and voting irregularities. Hi there, guys. Hi there. Hi. I want to start with a question from Betsy Alice of Frankfurt, Michigan. I received my absentee ballot, but have changed my mind and would like to actually go to the polls. Will this create an issue? So Pam, before you answer this question, I should say we've received actually a lot of questions about this from people in Minnesota, Wisconsin, California, New York.

What can you tell us? Well, that's right. A lot of people are very concerned now about sending their ballots in the mail because they're worried about delays. And so the good news is in that most states you can take your absentee ballot to the polling place and they'll void or cancel it and allow you to vote in person. Now, if you have lost your ballot, in that case, you might have to sign an affidavit that you haven't already voted. You also might have to cast what's called a provisional ballot until they can check and make sure that, in fact, you haven't already voted. And it's even possible, Audie, that you can vote in person if you've already sent in your absentee ballot, as long as they haven't opened the envelope yet and started processing it. And once that happens, you're out of luck.

All right. Next question is for Miles, and it's from a swing state. Molly Bukovec of Pennsylvania asks, is voting in person safer in terms of security of my ballot? Essentially asking about the safest way to ensure how a ballot is counted. Miles? Yeah, so there's kind of two parts of this, right? If she's talking about the safety in terms of the ballot being counted, not the safety around COVID, the safest way is in-person voting. We know that by mail voting, there are a large number of ballots when you look at the entire country that end up not counting for a number of reasons whether it's people forgetting a signature whether it's they

think they're on time and it gets there a day or two after that deadline pam actually did reporting on this around the primary more than 500 000 absentee ballots during the primary across the country were sent in and then and didn't end up counting so if you're only thinking about the most likely way that your vote's going to count, in-person is probably the way because there are people there to basically guide you along the process and make sure that vote ends up counting. Miles, I want to follow that up with another question. This one's from Josephine Chow from Germantown, Maryland. She's asking about the idea of helping someone out who needs help casting

their vote. For various reasons, some people would like to bring their mail-in ballots directly to a ballot drop box instead of sending them through the mail. At the same time, there are people who cannot get to a ballot box, for example, those who are isolating themselves to protect from COVID. What are the rules governing how to help? I'd like to help my neighbors, but not if it invalidates their vote. All right, this has been controversial for a lot of reasons. Can you talk about whether it's okay to transport or pick up a ballot for another person? Yeah, and this is like everything in voting, different everywhere. Some states basically say you have to be a family member to be able to transport somebody's absentee ballot. Some states

say anyone can do it, but there's a cap on how many in Colorado, for instance, you can't transport more than 10 absentee or male ballots. So every state is a little different. I would say if you're planning on doing this for a family member or for somebody you know, make sure you go check that law because in the states where it's not allowed, it is a felony. It can be a felony if you do this where it's not allowed or you don't fill out the correct paperwork. So in most states, there's some way for you to do it, but just be really sure before you go down that road. Is this different from what's being called ballot harvesting? Yeah, that's basically what Republicans call it.

This is another thing in voting that's kind of become a little partisan. Republicans call it ballot harvesting when somebody wants to turn in a number of absentee ballots. Democrats call it community ballot collection. But what I would say is even election officials who are in favor of the process would say no one should be giving their mail ballot or absentee ballot to somebody they don't trust regardless. So if it's somebody in your local neighborhood political party who you really trust, you've been to their meetings and they say they're going to do it and it sounds convenient, maybe you can think about doing that.

But if it's just somebody who shows up at your door and says, hey, you have a mail ballot, I'll turn in for you, probably don't hand over your ballot so easily. Pam, I have a follow up question on this, which also speaks to the idea of trust. It's from Eric Ortman from Walnut Creek, California, asking, do states have a way for voters to track if their vote was counted? Yes. I mean, actually, this has been a way for voters to track if their vote was counted? Yes. I mean, actually, this has been a great advance in recent years. Almost every state will allow you to track your mail and ballot online, like a package. The envelopes, the ballot envelopes, have this barcode on them that allows not only the Postal Service, but also the Elections Office, you know, to keep tabs on where the ballot is, you know, has it been sent out, has it been received.

And in a lot of states, you just go online, you enter your personal information and find out where the ballot is. And in some, like mine, which is Maryland, they actually will send out an email or text alert and saying, hey, your ballot has arrived, which is, you know, really quite reassuring. Then the other thing is that some states, you know, Miles was talking about these ballots that are rejected because of problems like they don't have signatures on them. About 20 of them will actually inform you and tell you if the ballot does have some kind of problem like that that needs to be fixed so it'll be counted. Again, not every state will do this. You can check with your local or state election office online and find out what their rules are. A lot of people have these concerns about making sure their ballot is counted. Constance Gruner in Indianapolis asks, must we vote on every line item?

And she gives the example, judge so-and-so, yes or no. I don't know them and hate to vote either way when I don't have an opinion. Miles? Yeah, this is one of those pervasive election myths that has spanned decades. And it's not true. I mean, you can leave however many races open if you don't understand a ballot question. You know, you don't have to vote if you want. You can just vote on the presidency or you can vote on as many or as few items on the ballot as you like. And your ballot will be counted as long as you have all those other

things we've been talking about signatures you send in on time, but the actual races you vote on do not affect whether your ballot is counted or not. One more question on the issue of signatures. This one comes from Steven Montematte. He's from Boise, Idaho. What signature will be used for comparison to confirm my signature? And what method is used to identify a correct signature? Well, again, that's a question a lot of people have. And as everything else, it varies from state to state. So in a few of them like mine, Maryland, they just check to make sure that you sign the back of the envelope. They don't compare it to anything. And a lot of states, they will compare the signature to the one that you used when you requested your absentee ballot, which might have only been a few months ago. So that's usually not a problem. What can be a problem is when they compare it to the signature that you used when

you registered to vote, which could have been decades ago. A lot of places will use computers to compare those signatures. Then if they are rejected, they will have human beings look at it to make another assessment. And then if it doesn't look right, as I say, some states will actually contact the voter to update their signature, but others don't do that. And in 2016, there were about 88,000 ballots that were rejected just because of the signature mismatches. So it's a big deal. And one thing you people can do is they can actually check with their election office to see what signature they have on file for them, and they can update them. All right, as host, I'm going to sneak in one for myself. What states or issues will you be keeping a close eye on on November 3rd, right? Election day,

Miles? The biggest one for me is just lines. I mean, we've seen in polling over the last few weeks that more and more people as a reaction to both President Trump's rhetoric around vote by mail and then also, you know, a lot of Democrats have fears because of the sort of messaging over the last couple months about the U.S. Postal Service. So many more people are saying they want to vote on Election Day. And that is really worrying election officials who have had to consolidate polling places in a lot of places, and have had trouble in some places recruiting poll workers. So when you combine the fact that there's also going to be all this social distancing happening, lines could be a really big issue on Election Day. If people have the opportunity to vote early, many experts and officials say you should try to do it. Pam? Yeah, well, besides the absentee ballots and which ones end up being counted or which ones end up

being rejected, I'm going to be interested on election day at the polling places. We've heard a lot of talk about poll watchers, people who might come to monitor the polls. There's a formal system where people are certified and trained to go in and they're not supposed to interfere with voters. But we don't know if there will be groups that come and stand outside the polling places and whether or not there will be any intimidation of voters. And that's something that I will definitely be keeping an eye out for. That's NPR's Pam Fessler and Miles Parks. Thanks for sharing your reporting.

Thanks, Audie. Thank you. If you still have questions about voting or how best to do it this year, NPR's podcast Life Kit has a longer guide you can check out. There's a link in our episode notes. It's Consider This from NPR. I'm Audie Cornish.