In sum: a destroyed/undermined USPS will pose huge challenges to a fair VBM election.
7. Where Will the Ballots Go, and When?
VBM ballots mostly need to be returned to election boards, whose offices can be few and far between. Some may offer special drop boxes, which will require special security to keep them from being stolen and/or destroyed.
Ohio's 2020 primary featured a single election center per each of the state's 88 counties. The one in Franklin County (population: 1.5 million) was in an abandoned Kohl's department store in a remote corner of Columbus. There were no drop boxes. Long lines (mostly in cars) built up through election day with voters trying to drop off their ballot or to obtain one. (Rural counties had no such problems.)
To properly serve the voting public, election centers must open at least two weeks before the election. Plentiful, secure drop boxes must be well-advertised and easy to find for a fair VBM outcome.
8. Chain of Custody
Convenient, decentralized voting centers should be universally available two or three weeks prior to election day. But those ballots demand serious protection.
Chain of control must be clearly established so ballots in certain key areas don't wind up in rivers and trash burners.
9. Voting Centers
Most VBM voting goes without face-to-face exposure. But well-advertised and convenient voting centers are still needed.
For two or three weeks prior to election day, at universally known voting centers, citizens should be able to pick up and/or drop off ballots, register, consult with poll workers to straighten out registration issues, etc. Centers should be open and staffed with long hours to avoid long lines that cause deadly back-ups, and to provide services in a timely, accurate, friendly way. If Trump does mobilize thousands of armed thugs, election protection activists must be at the voting centers to meet them.
10. The Surrender Rule
The "surrender rule" requires that voters who do receive their paper ballots in the mail but want to vote at a voter center bring the ballot in with them to use to vote, or to "surrender" for a different kind of ballot.
Those who show up without the ballot that's been sent to them will almost certainly be forced to vote provisionally, meaning their ballot will likely be pitched in the trash.
11. Election Protection at the Voting Centers
Trump's hired "volunteers" are likeliest to threaten intimidation and violence at the voting centers. Nonviolent election protection activists must be present in great numbers to neutralize the expected Trump assault.
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