I’ve been banging the drum for vote-by-mail for a long time. What just happened in Wisconsin demonstrates its importance, as a recent op-ed by John Hickenlooper–former Governor of Colorado–emphasizes.
The election chaos in Wisconsin on Tuesday sent a clear message: The nation can’t afford a repeat in November. Poll workers, many of them vulnerable senior citizens, and voters were forced to risk covid-19 infection to participate in American democracy, with scandalously long lines at the few polling places that were open in some areas. Gov. Tony Evers (D) had issued an executive order to reschedule the election, but Republicans fought against it and the state’s Supreme Court blocked it.
Republicans also attacked a sensible proposal by Evers to essentially turn the election into one conducted by mail, with absentee ballots sent to every registered voter. President Trump has lately chimed in with criticism that mail-in balloting is “horrible,” “corrupt” and invites “fraud.”
As Hickenlooper says, Colorado’s experience rebuts the GOP’s hysterical pushback. Colorado wasn’t the first state to go to vote by mail (Oregon and Washington were first), but its citizens have been voting from home for six years. Eligible Colorado voters receive a ballot in the mail roughly three weeks before Election Day, giving them time to do research on candidates and ballot initiatives. They complete the ballot from the comfort of their own homes, and either mail the ballot in or deposit it at one of hundreds of drop-off locations around the state.
Denver city and county voters even have the ability to track the status of their ballots, with email or text notifications, as they travel through the postal system. The “Ballot TRACE” software ensures that every mailed ballot is accounted for.
So what about those predictions of fraud?
The states that vote by mail have devised numerous safeguards against fraud. Colorado conducts rigorous risk-limiting audits; it also maintains a centralized database with voter signatures, and it tracks ballot returns. And as Hickenlooper points out, a big advantage of using mailed ballots is that paper can’t be hacked.
Other advantages? Higher turnouts (Oregon’s turnout puts Indiana’s to shame and in Colorado, the increase was particularly noticeable for “low propensity” populations) and significantly lower costs–Hickenlooper says Colorado saved $6 per voter.
It isn’t just Oregon, Washington and Colorado; other states have been moving in this direction. Voters in 28 of Utah’s 29 counties automatically get ballots at home. Nebraska and North Dakota also use vote by mail to varying degrees. Nearly half of the states allow some elections to be conducted by mail, and many allow voters to cast no-excuse absentee ballots.
The reason the GOP is so adamantly opposed to vote-by-mail is obvious: it increases turnout, and Democrats win when turnout increases. Turnout this November will be especially important. As I wrote in the wake of the Supreme Court’s shameful decision allowing gerrymandering to continue, we will need a citizen tsunami sufficient to overcome the blatantly rigged districts the Supreme Court has declined to rule unconstitutional.
Huge turnouts would be likely to do more than just eject the corrupt and unfit Trump Administration. A large enough turnout could wrest control of the Senate from McConnell, and clean out large numbers of the GOP’s state and local enablers. If that tsunami is big enough, it might even allow old-fashioned Republicans appalled and dispirited by what the GOP has become to retake their party from the white nationalists who have captured it.
If that doesn’t happen…history will record Mitch McConnell’s capture of the Supreme Court and the GOP’s unhindered voter suppression as a successful coup d’etat.
Who we end up electing -Young, Braun, the short-fingered vulgarian- puts Indiana’s voter turnout to shame. Anything that changes that for the better is welcome.
If nothing else; consider the inherent laziness of many American people, they would be more likely to sit at home filling out a form to put out for USPS mail carriers to pick up at their door. My last experience voting at the polls in November 2016 was an ugly and dangerous situation with one of the poll workers grabbing my upper arm, the arm holding my cane, and shoving me as I stumbled and lurched to a voting machine which rejected my ballot …TWICE. Being deaf I didn’t hear what she said but she was angry I had inserted it the 2nd time; she then grabbed my arm and shoved me to another ballot machine which accepted my ballot. Prior to my experience I had watched a security guard pull a woman by her arm away from one of the sign-in desks, sidling through the tightly packed crowd to the lobby of the medical facility hosting four or five precincts. Difficult to tell how many due to desks and staff being crammed together and so many people in the small room. He made a call while holding her arm; then pushed her back through the crowd to the front of the desk where he had grabbed her. I had to park behind the medical facility on the grass and walk around the entire building then over half a block through their filled parking lot to the end of the line. Our prior polling place was a few blocks away in a church side building with a roomy parking lot and three precinct polling areas.
What will the situation be on June 2nd; doubtful the quarantine will be totally lifted by then, will the Republican control over vote-by-mail-for-all be over in this Red state? Is this issue in the courts here or still in the hands of Republican government?
“If that doesn’t happen…history will record Mitch McConnell’s capture of the Supreme Court and the GOP’s unhindered voter suppression as a successful coup d’etat.”
I am 72 and have been retired for 10 years now. I went from full retirement to working for my local election board for eight-weeks each primary season and eight weeks each general election season; this is my 11th year, and I love my work. I have learned just about every task we do for voters.
One of those is answering the phone and preparing applications for mail-in ballots. A mail-in application is verified by matching the information provided by the voter and verifying signatures which are maintained on file in our state voter database. The ballot, once received, also is verified by the signature of the voter.
For those who don’t remember, we voted by signature and presenting our voter registration card (if requested) for decades. The mail-in ballot process does not require a photo ID, which in my opinion is the reason Republicans oppose it. After having worked with the mail-in ballot process for years as well as the in-person process requiring photo ID, I trust the signature verification as much or more than the photo ID.
The photo ID is used as a voter suppression tactic. I have yet to see anyone question the “looks” of a voter when the photo ID is presented. The photo ID is an obligatory handing of the ID to the check-in clerk, who rarely (if ever) compares the photo to the voter standing in front of him or her. The ID is scanned by electronic poll pads and then handed back to the voter.
Now that we can renew our DLs online, we escape the photo process for 12 years – two six year periods. This says to me that the state really isn’t interested in updated photos but simply maintaining the hardship for many to obtain supporting documents – tracking them down along with the cost. For women, an additional burden has been added – a chain of proof of name changes is required. That means women who have been married and divorced must obtain copies of the marriage document and the divorce decree – a time-consuming task that entails extra expense for women.
Our office has been swamped with request for the applications for mail-in ballots. Many have never used this method of voting, and they are realizing how easy it is – they are liking it.
This election right now is mail-in until a certain date. The cutoff is May 21st when the application for a mail-in ballot is due back in to local election boards or county clerks (check which is used for your county).
In the meantime, if you would like to see the full primary election as a mail-in process, please email the state election commission and express your support for an all mail-in election, even if it is just for this election – we have to start somewhere. County election boards and those who oversee the election process are strongly in favor of an all mail-in election, but the commission must approve it.
The election commission is scheduled to meet April 22nd – this will probably be when they make a decision about an all mail-in.
Please email to:
elections@iec.in.gov
Thank you.
The only problem I have with vote by mail is that you have people who have no training in handwriting analysis making the decision that you are who you say you are. This has been effectively used to discard ballots. If your ballot is discarded, you may or may not find out about it. That should never happen, but it does. They need a provision to set aside any ballot that might be questioned then contacting the voter and confirming that it is or isn’t him/her.
Peggy’s comment is a good one. I believe that in the 2016 election, a lot of absentee-ballots in Georgia were discarded, apparently casually. The people reading them, working for the then Secretary-of-State, now Governor Kemp, made a successful attempt to suppress thousands of (usually Democratic) votes.
Can someone explain Trump and the GOP stance that mail in voting allows for lots of fraud? With the covid19 situation, it seems that the only fair and safe way for people to vote IS by mail. IMHO I feel that mail in voting would encourage more participation, and from what I have heard over the years, that primaries generally have low voter turnout, only slightly higher in presidential elections. The current debacle we are enduring over the last three years has got to be changed! We must vote in November 2020, no matter how it gets done. For us oldsters, (of which I am one) need to vote regardless of a health risk, it is imperative that we give younger generations a country for them to be proud of, a leadership to be proud of. So I would be willing to die to be able to vote. This IS our war, and many before us gave their lives on foreign soil…..well now the fight is with oursleve3s on our own soil! VOTE DEM IN DECEMBER!
Wonderful info Charlotte!!
Thank you very much for the very useful insight.
Charlotte, Peggy and Pascal; can any of you assure me that the final of my THREE attempts to cast my vote for president in 2016 was counted? And I presented my voter registration and my photo ID. Why do you automatically believe in-person votes are all honored but doubt mail-in ballots will be counted? Either voting by mail, entering the ballot into a machine or those electronic voting machines with “hanging chad” results could all end up in the political trash bins anywhere.
Peggy; that handwriting analysis is what is used on those small computer screens when you write a check or use your credit or debit card for purchases and services. Does your signature look like your handwriting on any form of your ID?
Consider the electronic age today in politics and in purchasing merchandise or paying for services is, like religion, based on faith that it is accepted as your signature – even when it is not.
I live in Colorado and participate in mail-in ballots. Once, I forgot to sign the outside of the return envelope. The ballot was returned to me for signature. It was then that I learned that the signatures are scanned and a computer compares them with the signature in the state database from driver’s licenses and other documents. No fraud here.
Oh, and in 2016 Denver county voted over 80% DEMOCRAT. THAT is what has the do-nothing, know-nothing Republicans scared. The COVID-19 pandemic is flushing out the true meaning of what being a Republican means. Republican governors not engaging in the only weapons we have to prevent the spread of the virus add to the dangers we all must endure. The Federal government isn’t even tracking assisted living facilities where, today’s headlines state, 39% of the deaths are occurring. It’s only the press that is coordinating data.
The Trump administration reflects the psychopathic nature of this president. “I will determine when the data says to re-open the country. “I alone can fix our problems.” Etc., etc. As we all see, the pathetic wretch has screwed up everything he’s touched so far….and he still has 9 months left to finish destroying our country. Meanwhile, he and the Republican cult of Trump are warming up their pointing fingers and blaming everybody and everything but the real culprits of this shameful episode in our history.
Will there be any of us left to vote in November?
Both Trump and Pence have voted via mail in the last election. Maybe from their point of view, looking at the kinds of people they allow to vote by mail, this system is fraud. As far as they can see, liars, cheats and sycophants vote by mail.
The only issue I see with the Professor blog today is the assumption that there will be more than one candidate for any office on the ballot. Gerrymander has proven to be a very effective tool to limit the choice to one candidate in whichever party the gerrymander constructs as the likeliest winner. Considering the amount of money currently required to fun a viable campaign, those districts’ candidates know a good/bad situation when they see one and act accordingly.
The NY Times published this in Today’s Paper:
Does Vote-by-Mail Favor Democrats? No. It’s a False Argument by Trump.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/10/us/politics/vote-by-mail.html
Fear is the best motivational tool and Trump is the master, so what if he has to lie.
If anything demonstrated the absolute depths the GOP would sink to, it happened in Wisconsin. Forcing the voters out in public into the street to vote. So much for the Pro-Life B.S. the GOP claims to have.
I have been eligible to vote absentee for some time. As far as someone worrying about their vote being counted, I worked the polls many years in various capacities. Never, did I encounter anyone who lacked integrity and honesty. The people who worked the polls were polite and helpful.
Personally, I think any registered voter who wants to cast an absentee ballot should be allowed to do so.
Oregon’s 20-year history of voting by mail is perhaps our best example of democracy by design. It works to enhance turnout and promotes the idea of (Horrors!) majority rule, one of the benchmarks of Athenian democracy adopted by Jefferson and Madison. An end to gerrymandering and other suppression antics of Republicans to protect their minority control along with repeal of the electoral process that elected Trump might at last give us the democracy we fought a revolution to secure.
The only thing that concerns me about voting by mail is the signature comparisons some jurisdictions require before authenticating the ballot cast. My signature, for instance, has changed markedly over the years. I would hope that other criteria for authenticating my ballot cast would override my signature for its validity since, as Popeye noted, I yam who I yam.
Our single protection from tyranny and despotism is democracy and that requires easy assess to the polls by everyone eligible to vote. The hiring and firing of those who represent us to government is the civic duty of all voters and anything that gets in the way of doing that is a risk. Of course so would more than one vote per person but there’s no evidence of that swaying any election but instead we have a whole nest of parasites in DC now as evidence of democracy restricted.
The vote is our right and we are the ones who have to stand over it and protect it. It’s too risky to rely on politicians to whom full democracy is a threat.
Without the full power of elections our freedom is an illusion.
Maybe we should do telephone votes, since we can vote by phone for an american idol or a dancing star
Given the “Redness” of the State of Arizona, I was pleasantly surprised to learn, after moving to Arizona in 2011, first that you can register to vote simply by checking a box when obtaining an Arizona Driver’s license through the Arizona Department of Transportation. You can also register or update your registration on-line through the ServiceArizona web site.
And second, I was surprised to learn that anyone can request a mail-in ballot that can be either mailed in or dropped off at a polling place on election day. And once you request a mail-in ballot, you will receive one in every future election unless you request to be removed from the mail-in list (and before the mail-in ballots are sent out in every election, you will receive a notice from the County Recorder informing you that you will receive a mail-in ballot unless you request otherwise). Nine years later, neither my wife nor I have learned the location of our polling place. Although, it has never happened to me, if there is a question about the validity of the signature on the mail-in ballot, the County Recorder’s Office will call as you are asked to provide a phone number on the ballot signature envelope. And, of course, the signature verification process is closely monitored by workers from both parties.
I don’t recall hearing — even from the Arizona Republican Party — any claims of voter fraud due to mail-in ballots. Don’t get me wrong, the Republicans in the Arizona Legislature are doing all the other things they can to suppress the vote, if they can.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/the-postal-service-was-in-trouble-before-covid-19-now-its-fighting-for-its-life/2020/03/25/b5b10c6a-6ee0-11ea-96a0-df4c5d9284af_story.html
“As a direct result of the coronavirus crisis, it has become clear that the Postal Service will not survive the summer without immediate assistance from Congress and the White House,” Maloney and Connolly wrote in a letter Tuesday to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). “Postal Service officials warn that, without immediate intervention, the precipitous drop off in mail use across the country due to the coronavirus pandemic could shutter the Postal Service’s doors as early as June.”
With their belief that the more people who vote, the less likely Republicans are to win, there is no incentive for the Republicans to shore up the U.S. Postal Service.
Regarding the concern about signatures, I am reminded of my experience with early voting in Westfield a few years ago. At that time I was required to sign my name on a tablet using my finger. Not a stylus… a finger! I have always contended that a finger signature should never stand up in court. The best of handwriting experts would have a tough time comparing such a method to my real signature. And, believe me, most poll workers are not handwriting experts. I’ve been one myself.
I do like the idea of being able to track your mail-in ballot on the internet. Such a verification technique is used every day by people sending registered letters and packages through the mail. In addition: people you don’t trust or know should not be allowed to pick up and send in ballots for you. We saw how well that worked in the latest election.
I’m a Hoosier who’s lived in Washington State since 1972. Long before the state adopted voting by mail, I began voting absentee in every election. I suggested the practice to friends and associates. In time, I was able to establish a permanent absentee status. I did not have to provide a doctor’s note, nor did I have to document the reason for my status as an absentee voter.
This had many advantages:
1) No waiting in line at a polling place.
2) No having to travel to a polling place.
3) Not affected by the weather on election day.
4) Time to spend studying ballot measures I hadn’t known were going to be on the ballot, so my vote was based on information, not guesswork.
5) Knowledge my ballot would be handled by the Elections Department, who would check my signature against the one on file.
6) Time to discuss candidates and issues with other voters whose values and opinions helped me.
7) Time to check out the recommendations of organizations and political people who shared my values, priorities, or had expertise in areas of particular concern to me.
8) Minimum cost — postage — which was almost nothing compared to the cost of going to the polling place (my time has value, my car cost something to use).
First King County, then the State of Washington, adopted vote-by-mail for everyone. King County recently strengthened its vote-by-mail by providing free postage. No one has to find a stamp to return the ballot. The ballot is delivered to me and then to the King County Elections Division by a uniformed officer of the Federal Government (postal carrier) whom I have learned throughout my life to respect and trust. I have none of the security concerns I would have with a voting machine (which may haves been designed and selected because of its tendency to help one party or interest group or another). I have no interest in any rigging of elections, including rigging done that favors my points of view.
Throughout the decades of voting by mail, I have not missed an election. I have filled out my ballots fully, with choices that are based on research into the facts behind candidates and ballot measures. I always have time to wait for the publication of ratings and endorsements by a volunteer-based organization I helped to initiate in 1977. The group interviews, sends questionnaires to candidates, does independent research into voting records and other evidence of candidate knowledge and actions, and focuses solely on the concerns of LGBTQ people, without regard to the parties to which candidates belong. I also look for information from the organization which defends pensions and other concerns of retired public employees. I check out the organizations that defend civil liberties and seek to broaden human rights protections. I do all of this because I can thanks to voting by mail.
If Indiana doesn’t adopt voting by mail as the way to vote from now on — there are safeguards and practices for checking the authenticity of votes — that will be one more thing to add to my list of reasons why I say, “Indiana is a good place to be FROM!”
Roger Winters
I’m a Hoosier who’s lived in Washington State since 1972. Long before the state adopted voting by mail, I began voting absentee in every election. I suggested the practice to friends and associates. In time, I was able to establish a permanent absentee status. I did not have to provide a doctor’s note, nor did I have to document the reason for my status as an absentee voter.
This had many advantages:
1) No waiting in line at a polling place.
2) No having to travel to a polling place.
3) Not affected by the weather on election day.
4) Time to spend studying ballot measures I hadn’t known were going to be on the ballot, so my vote was based on information, not guesswork.
5) Knowledge my ballot would be handled by the Elections Department, who would check my signature against the one on file.
6) Time to discuss candidates and issues with other voters whose values and opinions helped me.
7) Time to check out the recommendations of organizations and political people who shared my values, priorities, or had expertise in areas of particular concern to me.
8) Minimum cost — postage — which was almost nothing compared to the cost of going to the polling place (my time has value, my car cost something to use).
First King County, then the State of Washington, adopted vote-by-mail for everyone. King County recently strengthened its vote-by-mail by providing free postage. No one has to find a stamp to return the ballot. The ballot is delivered to me and then to the King County Elections Division by a uniformed officer of the Federal Government (postal carrier) whom I have learned throughout my life to respect and trust. I have none of the security concerns I would have with a voting machine (which may have been designed and selected because of its tendency to help one party or interest group or another). I have no interest in any rigging of elections, including rigging done that favors my points of view.
Throughout the decades of voting by mail, I have not missed an election. I have filled out my ballots fully, with choices that are based on research into the facts behind candidates and ballot measures. I always have time to wait for the publication of ratings and endorsements by a volunteer-based organization I helped to initiate in 1977. The group interviews, sends questionnaires to candidates, does independent research into voting records and other evidence of candidate knowledge and actions, and focuses solely on the concerns of LGBTQ people, without regard to the parties to which candidates belong. I also look for information from the organization which defends pensions and other concerns of retired public employees. I check out the organizations that defend civil liberties and seek to broaden human rights protections. I do all of this because I can thanks to voting by mail.
If Indiana doesn’t adopt voting by mail as the way to vote from now on — there are safeguards and practices for checking the authenticity of votes — that will be one more thing to add to my list of reasons why I say, “Indiana is a good place to be FROM!”
Roger Winters
Thank you Charlotte, You bring up a valid point concerning women who are required to maintain a chain of proof of name changes. Copies of Marriage and Divorce papers must be obtained which is time consuming and expensive. Maybe it is time we discard the barbaric practice of women changing their name when they marry and (many times) change it again when they divorce. The only reason that women were required to change their names in the first place was to prove ownership of the husband. Women are no longer property of their husbands though many men still hang on to those old beliefs.
I have done a lot of research on voting turnout. Here are some thoughts.
You cannot compare turnout among the states based on number of voters/number of people registered,. The reason why is some states do a better job of deleting non-voters from the rolls than other states, which process has made more difficult with the Motor Voter Law passed by Congress in 1993. (When you have a lot of dead voters and those who have moved on the rolls, that means, turnout is going to appear to be lower than it actually is.) Indiana actually has been a historically bad state when it comes to deleting non-voters, which is a major reason why we have a lower turnout rate than most other states. Just a few years ago, Marion County had a 105% registration rate in the county, i.e. more people registered to vote than were adult age residents in the county eligible to vote.
To get an apples to apples comparison, what you do is compare the # of voters to the 18+ population in the state. Then you will get more accurate turnout numbers that aren’t skewed by how well each st ate does of deleted deceased voters and those who have moved.
Second, I have looked at Indiana’s turnout before and after the voter ID law was adopted. There is no evidence of a decline in turnout caused by having to show a photo ID to vote. That is a Democratic talking point not backed up by evidence, at least not in Indiana.
Before the photo ID requirement was adopted, Indiana’s signature requirement had become a joke. No votes were ever thrown out because signatures didn’t match. My signature when I checked in to vote was the signature I had when I signed my social security card at 15 years old, some 30 plus years earlier. That signature is nothing like the one I have today. Yet my signature was never challenged.
Most of the Democrats’ claims of “voter suppression” are every bit as bogus as Republicans claim of widespread “voter fraud.” But what happened in Wisconsin a few weeks ago was real voter suppression. It was all about a state Supreme Court judge race and Republicans knowing that the closing of polls in Milwaukee would mean fewer Democrats voting, giving them the advantage in that race.
Democrats need to stop opposing every effort to ensure the integrity of the ballot. If a person has not voted in 8 years, they should automatically be removed from the rolls. From experience, I guarantee you that if a person hasn’t voted in an 8 year period, there is about a 99% chance the person is dead or has moved. Yet Democrats oppose that and they oppose photo ID requirements which are reasonable. (I agree the types of photo ID that is accepted should be expanded.)
Republicans meanwhile need to stop opposing things like mail-in-voting, especially during a pandemic in which people are afraid to go to the polls. They need to support making registering and voting easier, as long as those measures don’t negatively affect the integrity of the ballot. I particularly am fond of vote centers that allow someone to vote anyplace in the county. I am not fond so fond of early voting in which people can vote a month before the date of the election. A week early, maybe, but certainly not a month.
Paul K. Ogden; you put a lot of time and effort into your comments which put Democrats in a bad light which is the job of all Republicans. You have done your job on this issue. There are many requirements for photo ID other than voting; repeatedly when cashing checks where I am a familiar face and my doctor’s office along with my proof of health care coverage where I am also known. When my grandson put in his change of address with the Post Office in South Bend to move back to Indianapolis, the form contained the option to transfer his registration to his new address here so it was transferred along with his new address. When I moved to a different home here I simply got on line and changed my registration address, NO photo ID required for either of us. And no problem at the polls…until the problems in 2016 when my polling place was changed for this address.
As for the required marriage licenses and divorce documents for women to obtain their Patriots Act level of drivers license renewal; it is required if you intend to fly anywhere or enter a government building. I renewed my drivers license without the paperwork I could not find; my only concern will be in two more years and time to renew my license again…is the BMV a government building requiring the Patriots Act level drivers license?
Peggy – In Allen County we do have a procedure if a signature needs further review. If the signature is on the application for a mail-in ballot and we need further verification other than the SVRS on-file original signature, we set it aside and have another person look at it. We also call the applicant to verify that the signature is his or her signature.
We do the same with the ballot when it is received.
The signatures on-file in the state database are from DLs or state IDs.
Probably about 75% of the applications for mail-in ballots are from those in the 65+ category, and I, frankly, have confidence that the elderly are not misleading us. I imagine it could happen, but that is the group with the highest percentage of voter turnout.
Mike S – we do not use the electronic poll pad finger or stylus signature for verification. We compare the DL or state ID with the signature on file in our state database. A voter typically has a history of signatures over the years so we can see any changes that have occurred – which does happen as we age.
Our poll pads are programmed to provide a visual of the most current actual signature so clerks are not required to second guess from the finger or stylus signature.
JoAnn Green – the Patriot Act is a federal act. The Real ID Act is also federal and that is what governs driver’s license and non-driver’s license state IDs.
A BMV in Indiana is not a federal government facility – it is a state facility. The states opposed the Real ID Act when it was passed in 2005. That is why it has taken so long to put it in place.
In fact, with Covid-19, the current date of state compliance of October 1, 2020, has been extended to October 1, 2021.
Again, it is important to know this is a federal act and applies to federal facilities and flying.
https://www.dhs.gov/real-id
Roger Winters – thank you for your comments on mail-in ballots. After 11 years of working with this issue, I have confidence in the mail-in process.
Our election commission meets April 22nd, and we are hoping they approve an all mail-in election.
One thing I forgot to mention is that of the age and health of poll workers. The average age of a poll worker on election day is 71 years old – if Marion County is removed from the stat, the average age is 81.
Our elections – whether primary or general – are staffed by the highest Covid-19 risk group. This, in and of itself, should compel the election commission to take action to protect our poll workers by approving an all mail election.
Larry Harmon – totally agree on the name change. Back in the late ’70s, I began subscribing to MS magazine. I also began using “Ms.” as a prefix. I was divorced, and I had begun to question why a male was not required to identify as married or single while a woman typically was using Miss or Mrs. Really irritated me. I also took back my birth name after my divorce and have stopped using the term “maiden” name since that also carries connotations of ownership.