Mail-in voting now permanent in California
California Gov. Gavin Newsom signs a bill Sept. 27 making mail-in voting available to all voters in the state. Photo courtesy of Unsplash.
On Sept. 27, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill effectively requiring vote-by-mail ballots to be sent to all registered state voters in every election. This bill makes the temporary mail-in option the state began as a safety precaution during the COVID-19 pandemic permanent.
"As states across our country continue to enact undemocratic voter suppression laws, California is increasing voter access, expanding voting options and bolstering elections integrity and transparency," Newsom said in a statement. on Sept. 27.
Recently, Texas, Florida, Georgia and Iowa all passed single bills that contained multiple voter restrictions. Montana and Arizona also passed multiple bills which restricted access to the ballot.
In march of 2020, Orange County transitioned to a Vote Center model of voting, which required that all registered voters automatically be mailed a vote-by-mail ballot during each election. Since then, all Orange County registered voters have been mailed a vote-by-mail ballot prior to each election. According to Orange County Registrar of Voters Neal Kelly, additional expenses will be minimal to none at all.
“With (vote-by-mail) infrastructure already in place, we do not anticipate seeing a significant increase in expenses,” Kelly told The Panther.
Since 2019, mail-in ballots in California have been sent with prepaid postage return envelopes.
“In California, it's now 'No Stamp, No Problem' for vote-by-mail voters,” California Secretary of State Alex Padilla said.
Advocates of the bill, Assembly Bill 37, believe it will make voting more convenient, increasing voter turnout in future elections. During the 2020 presidential election, over 15 million Calfironians voted by mail. Over 70% of eligible Californians voted, the highest general election turnout rate since 1952, and according to Kelly, 83% of voters in Orange County opted to vote by mail. A paper released by University of Virginia’s Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy, found that mail-in voting favors neither political party. The paper did find that mail-in voting increases voter turnout by one to three percent in the elections studied.
Some advocates of SB 37 also believe that a mail-in voting option will increase turnout among the college student demographic in particular. Jackson Hurley, the political director for Voters of Tomorrow — a non-partisan, youth-led organization focused on voter education — said he believes simply finding the time to vote in person has been a major obstacle for college students in determining whether or not to cast their ballots.
“Some students will have three or four classes on a given day; finding the time to wait to vote in between classes is difficult,” Hurley said. “When you add the fact that many college students don’t have access to a car, (this) makes it impossible for some of them.”
A study by Tufts University found that an estimate of 28% of people aged 18-29 vote in elections. The research attributed low youth turnout largely to lack of preparation and information to become informed voters.
“We need to make sure young people have a say in our government,” Hurley continued. “In order to do that, as many obstacles as possible need to be removed.”
Some skeptics have concerns over the security of mail-in voting. Many Republicans believe that an increase of mail-in voting is directly proportional to an increase of voter fraud.
“It’s no secret that Democrats have and will continue to try to manipulate election regulations for their political advantage,” California Republican Party Chairwoman Jessica Millan Patterson said in a statement back in September. “Republicans will hold them accountable through our election integrity operations — including litigation, where appropriate — and by recruiting and supporting candidates who will provide solutions to California’s numerous challenges.”
Studies have been conducted in recent years to assess the frequency of voter fraud in the United States. A 2017 analysis published in The Washington Post concluded that there is no evidence to support former president Donald Trump’s claim that voters from Massachusetts were bused in to New Hampshire to vote. The Brennan Center for Justice’s seminal report reviewed specific elections and found proven cases of voter fraud to be between 0.0003% and 0.0025%
The Orange County Registrar of Voters has implemented several security measures to ensure the integrity of ballots in future elections.
“We work closely with the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) and the Department of Homeland Security to develop strategies and counter measures to stop threats before they even happen,” Kelly said.
Kelly also emphasized all vote-by-mail ballots go through a series of signature verification tiers in order to validate the voter’s identity. If a signature is deemed non-matching in the final tier, the voter is contacted via mail and given the opportunity to update their signature on file. The new registration and letter are combined with the challenged ballot.
California is now the 10th state to automatically send voters mail-in ballots. For some states, like New Jersey and Utah, the mail-in option is still a temporary measure for COVID-19 safety.