What’s With All The Ruckus: What You Need To Know About The Ballots
The idea of absentee ballots’ purpose only focused on early votes for those who could not attend the in-person polls quickly shifted to an old concept this year. With COVID-19 manipulating everything that people once called normal, it only makes sense that it would affect even the most fundamental and important processes in the United States. Regardless, with dozens of North Cobb seniors coming of age this fall, a bout of controversy tumbled onto the already confusing topic of voting.
September 24, 2020
With a large population of North Cobb seniors eligible to vote in the upcoming election, combined with the recent changes in the system as a whole, the process becomes even more frustrating to hundreds.
COVID-19 caused a surge in absentee ballots—ballots mailed in advance of an election in case someone cannot attend the in person polls, or at least in the past. Growing concerns amongst the population divide it by the young and old. Young voters want to stop the spread of the virus and the old and as a result, plan to send in their ballots. Even if they were to show up in person older generations, for while they once ran the in and outs of the voting process, since now pulled out of working this year for the sake of their own health. While changes such as lowering the volunteering age to work at the polls could create traffic to in-person polls, the fact remains that thousands of voters rely on the post office. Only one problem exists: the post office cannot handle it.
Voting turnouts always leaned towards low numbers, especially for 18-24-year-old voters, mainly due to the distaste and belief that their votes do not actually make a difference. In any case, the majority of people do not show up or do not attempt to vote regardless; a prime example of this back in 2016, despite a total of 250 million eligible voters with only a 55 percent turnout. However, three-quarters of American people can (and want to) post their ballot through the mail. With the postal office falling into debt, it looks catastrophic for those who vote blue, for they mainly plan to send in their ballots non-face-to-face, unlike those who vote red.
Whether or not these late ballots become considered as a manufactured crisis or attack on democrats but the fact remains that changes can and will happen to the election. Earlier in August, controversies surfaced with the changes brought on by the new head of the Postal Service, with actions including cutting down postal service hours, which brought a massive bout of delivery delays. With about half of democrats deciding that they want to vote through the mail versus 66 percent of Republican voters doing in-person, mixed in with the monetary cuts executed by President Trump cause hundreds to worry that their votes will become invalidated.
