No one is particularly interested in a grand bargain on election administration, but the new GOP focus on mail balloting really does open things up, on paper (emphasis on “on paper”)
https://twitter.com/tomlobianco/status/1366096301834833920
Why? Well, for starters, and as I've said a few times--to the objection of many twitter replies lol--no excuse absentee mail voting is certainly something Democrats ought to be able to negotiate on from the standpoint of both self-interest and lower-case 'd' democratic values.
Obviously, that basic fact really opens up the room to negotiate (again, on paper).
At the same time, ending absentee mail balloting rationalizes many reforms to improve accessibility that Ds would ordinarily be alone in demanding (like a national election holiday)
At the same time, ending absentee mail balloting rationalizes many reforms to improve accessibility that Ds would ordinarily be alone in demanding (like a national election holiday)
One minor thing: mail voting is not necessarily an easy way to vote. It is a way to vote that doesn't involve leaving your house, and that is *one* important element of whether something is easy, but it is difficult in other respects
https://twitter.com/bryanmink15/status/1366151074344755202?s=20
(As a result, mail voting has tended to be disproportionately used by old, reliable, high education, relatively white voters)
Depends a lot on the state, but depending on the circumstances some combination of: need to apply well in advance, navigating ballot/envelope, signature verification, needing a stamp, USPS reliability, etc. are all extra barriers to a counted vote
https://twitter.com/nintendobenzo/status/1366152398784331777?s=20
Many of these issues, I would note, were recognized as threats to the Dems before the election. You can find serious folks concerned that mail balloting was going to cost them the election, because their folks were being channeled into a riskier voting method
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