North Coastal News

With communities around the country still debating whether universal mail-in voting is even logistically possible, critics continue to raise concerns over all the problems that are likely to emerge as the ballots flow in and the votes are counted in November, with the potential for the tally to run on for weeks or longer.

Eric Smith, Chambers County Republican Party chair, told the North Coastal News that he has worked as an election official in the past, and seen how many clerical issues have to be cleared up at the polls.

“I have been an election judge for many years and always have voters show up who have not updated their registration or let their registration expire,” he said. “It's very hard to keep up the voter rolls.”

Those inaccuracies may doom an attempt at conducting a thorough and fair election by mail from the start, he said. And along with some voters never receiving a ballot and others who have moved or died being mailed ballots, the process open to fraud.

“Smaller counties seem to be more successful at it given their populations are not so transient, but large counties would have to dedicate a lot of effort to remove dead voters or voters who have moved,” he said.

While it’s possible that some smaller states with more centralized populations would have some chance of effectively conducting a mail-in election, Smith said the task could prove to be impossible for a state the size of Texas. Most of all, though, he is concerned about safeguarding a fair and equitable election, he said.

“My concern here is voter fraud. If I have info on the former resident of an address, I could steal their vote,” he said. “I could do the same to other residents, such as elderly family. Frankly, I feel absentee ballots needs to be scaled back. With early voting, very few people would be away during an election.”