Illinois Debates Vote-By-Mail Ballots for 2020 Election Amidst Pandemic (2024)

With less than six months to go until the general election and with concerns over social distancing at polling places, some Illinois leaders are pushing to significantly expand the use of vote-by-mail ballots.

State Sen. Julie Morrison, a Democrat from Lake Forest, plans to introduce a bill that would allow the state to mail a ballot to every registered voter in Illinois. Under the provisions of the bill, select polling places would remain open for early voting and on Election Day for those who don’t feel comfortable casting ballots by mail.

“I've heard of alot of interest in having a vote by mail program so that people do feelcomfortable and safe on Election Day,” said. Sen. Morrison.

Current law allows Illinoisans to request a vote-by-mail ballot as early as Aug. 5. Sen. Morrison said her bill would only apply to the 2020 Election as a direct response to the coronavirus pandemic, so voters don’t have to choose between their right to vote and their health and to protect poll workers.

“It’s the responsibilityof the government to plan and prepare,” Sen. Morrison said.

Morrison pointsto states such as Colorado and Washington, where the majority of voting is donethrough mail. Last week, California Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an executive orderto send registered voters a ballot.

An April NBCNews/Wall Street Journal poll showed two-thirds of Americans support mail-invoting in November.

But expanding mailballoting in the given time frame will be a “tremendous undertaking,” expertssaid.

“The timelines I’veseen published suggested that states should have decided a couple of weeks agoto optimally go in that direction,” said political science professor CharlesStewart, co-founder of the Stanford-MIT Project ona Healthy Election.

The project,which was formed to address the threat the pandemic poses to the 2020 Election,supports a significant shift to mail balloting, which will include a massiveinvestment in infrastructure and equipment.

In Illinois,postage alone is estimated between $20 million and $38 million. Other equipmentcounties would need include secure drop boxes, upgraded ballot scanners and more.

Illinois received$13.7 million in federal funds to address election security issues specific tothe pandemic, but experts said it is not nearly enough.

Data from the Illinois State Board of Elections shows Illinoisans don’t often choose the option to vote by mail. In the 2016 presidential election, just 6.5 percent of the total vote cast ballots by mail. That number jumped to nine percent in the recent March primary.

The Illinois Association of Clerks and Recorders said ithas concerns with mailing an unsolicited ballot to registered voters.

“We would certainly like to see Illinois have a morerobust vote by mail program, however we would like that implemented with theintegrity of the election in mind. In states that have adopted a full vote bymail system, it has taken several election cycles to accomplish,” aspokesperson said.

House Republican Leader Jim Durkin of Western Springssaid a plan to mail ballots to everyone won’t work.

“A vote by mail program is currently the law and an optionfor all Illinois voters. Springfield needs to get out of the business oftelling people what to do. The state of Illinois cannot even keep up withunemployment benefits applications and should not be trusted with theprocessing of the millions of voter ballots,” Durkin said in a statement.

President Donald Trump has been an outspoken critic of statewidemail-in voting, claiming in an April 8 tweet that it leaves a “tremendouspotential for voter fraud.”

There is no proof of that, and experts reiterate that votingby mail is safe and secure.

“Itrelies on election officials on communicating with their voters about how to doit properly and letting them know that they can track their ballots,” Stewartsaid.

Still,some cyber security experts, already worried about how the pandemic couldinfluence the election, said the controversy surrounding mail in voting and theadministrative challenges ahead are prime feeding ground for disinformation.

“Thatwill give rise to conspiracy theories with people saying the election washacked or rigged,” said Jake Braun, Executive Director of the Cyber PolicyInitiative at the University of Chicago.