https://www.rawstory.com/2020/03/why-nationwide-voting-by-mail-isnt-a-silver-bullet-in-a-pandemic/
The below is why I say all states need to be preparing NOW for full absentee / vote by mail - with in-person voting locations maintained as well as a backup - to ensure EVERYONE can vote, pandemic or no pandemic. Otherwise, Trump likely sees this pandemic as something that will help him get re-elected due to the undoubtedly changed electorate when voting absentee or by mail -- or not at all.
. . . However, shifting broadly to absentee ballots—which arrive by mail and can be dropped off or mailed back—as congressional Democrats, election law scholars, party officials, campaign lawyers and activists have been saying is the best way to ensure voting next fall amid the pandemic, is not a simple task.
“Rushing to an all-mail voting system nationwide, without guaranteeing the reasonable availability of in-person polling sites as an alternative, thus risks inadvertently—but profoundly—changing the makeup of the electorate,” writes David Becker, executive director of the Center for Election Innovation & Research and former Justice Department voting section attorney, in the Washington Post.
“A switch to all-mail, or mostly mail, voting would also be a massive administrative undertaking,” he continues. “It requires planning, training, procurement of new technology and education of the electorate, particularly if in-person voting is being limited.”
There are formidable legal, technical and logistical hurdles that must be addressed if a shift to absentee and more early voting options emerges—starting with the fact that one-third of states limit absentee voting, and some even criminalize efforts to assist absentee voters. Before the pandemic broke, Florida’s Republican-controlled legislature was “advancing a bill that would prohibit people from helping with or returning any mail ballots outside their own family if they received any ‘benefit’ for doing so,” noted Marc Elias, who filed two-dozen voting rights suits on behalf of Democrats this cycle.
There are other challenges beyond the legal issues. These issues include the Postal Service’s ability to deliver ballots amid ongoing budget and workforce cuts, how the public will adapt to new voting regimens (March 17 primaries saw confusion and consternation as precincts closed and moved), and ensuring that voters are not disenfranchised because they lack mailboxes or street addresses.
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