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An Election Lawyer on Making Sure Your Vote Counts
Here are five steps to ensure that you are prepared
This op-ed was written anonymously.
For the past couple of weeks, news headlines have been singularly focused on a government agency that most people have not thought too much about until recently: the United States Postal Service. Voting advocates, election administrators, and Congress are ringing the alarm about how Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, a Trump mega-donor with zero Postal Service experience, has been implementing new operational changes that are slowing down mail services, in an apparent attempt to sabotage voting by mail come November. On August 18, in response to the intense public outcry, the postmaster general declared that he would be rolling back some of these changes.
Meanwhile, the Covid-19 pandemic is devastating families, disrupting our way of life, and is having a disproportionate impact on Black, Indigenous, and Latinx people. We are all very rightfully worried about exposure to Covid-19 at in-person voting locations this fall, which is obviously why absentee voting (or mail-in voting) has become an ideal option for many. Understandably, a disrupted Postal Service is sowing much distrust and confusion with voters about whether absentee voting is a viable option after all.
