Local experts discuss concerns about voting by mail

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

Tuesday marked the first day mail-in ballots were sent to voters.

The Boone County Clerk's office has already seen an increase in the number of mail-in ballots that have been requested.

Peverill Squire is a professor at the Department of Political Science at the University of Missouri. He said with the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, it makes sense more people are planning to vote by mail.

"I think people are comfortable with the idea that they can perhaps be able to participate without having to show up at their polling place," Squire said.

He said with the increase in mail-in ballots, the election will probably play out differently in different states, like counting ballots in a timely manner.

"We've had several states that have been doing it for, in the case of Oregon, 20 years without any problems, " he said.

"Missouri, we don't have as much experience with it and it's become somewhat more controversial here. Missouri's made it a little bit more difficult than a lot of other states this year," he said.

Squire said, locally, he does not expect the number of mail-in ballots to be as large as some other places.

"Whether we get to numbers that we'll see in other places around the country is unlikely. We will probably have more people choosing to vote in person on election day," he said.

Squire said some larger counties, like St. Louis County, in Missouri could see problems, but he thinks Boone County is prepared.

"Here is Boone County, we probably will have the resources we need and certainly we have the people who are experienced with elections," he said.

Boone County Clerk Brianna Lennon said her team has prepared and has made plans to ensure they have enough election judge teams to quickly process ballots.

"We do thankfully have five days before the election that we can start processing so that will give us enough time to do that," Lennon said.

She said the office has a high-speed tabulator to count ballots and is looking into getting back up machines in case staff run into issues.

She also said they will begin counting earlier in the day than they have during past elections.

Squire said it is not as easy to commit election fraud by mailing in a ballot as some people may think, especially on a mass scale.

"There have been a few instances in a few places over time. Not very many. It's actually not very easy to engage in mail ballot fraud," he said.

Lennon said there are several steps to ensure fraud does not occur.

Staff check the personal identifying information and the signature on the application. They also flag ballots as they go to track them through the process.

"When we process the application it gets tied to the voter's record, so the voter's record then has a note on it that an absentee ballot has been sent out to them," she said.

When the voter returns the ballot the note is updated to say it was received by the office. If someone who requested an absentee ballot decides to vote in person, once they are there the note on their record about the absentee ballot with be voided.

Squire said down the road he expects there to be more public pressure from voters in places like mid-Missouri once they get more comfortable with it for mail-in ballot voting.

"Public opinion surveys in Oregon show that just under 90% of voters there like it," he said.

Both Lennon and Squire said voters should be sure to carefully read a ballot if they plan to mail it in to ensure they do not miss anything.