YOU CAN PROTECT YOUR VOTE. During the 2020 Presidential election, many individuals reported
arriving to vote in person, only to be told their vote had already been cast. If those individuals had not
voted in person, how would they have known their vote had already been cast by someone else? They
wouldn’t.
BE PART OF CITIZEN OVERSIGHT. Voting in person puts more eyeballs on the process and forces more transparency, as compared to dropping a ballot into the mail or a ballot dropbox. Voting in person
ensures that you have an opportunity to witness and call out any irregularities. Using mail or ballot
dropboxes (or even early/absentee voting) eliminates this option for voter oversight.
KEEP IT LOCAL. If you mail in your ballot or drop it into a ballot dropbox, you’re essentially telling your
local county clerk, “I don’t need in-person voting at all,” which can then make it harder for that county
to justify maintaining as many polling centers. Voting in person increases the likelihood that only you
and your neighbors are handling and counting your ballot.
USE IT OR LOSE IT. Over the years, in states where ballot dropboxes have become more common, the
number of ballot dropboxes have increased while the number of in-person voting locations has
decreased, thereby making it harder and less convenient for individuals to vote in person. Besides, who
is actually monitoring all of those dropboxes to ensure the chain of custody isn’t broken? Is a car more
likely to be stolen when it’s parked on the street for a week, or when the owner and three passengers
are in the car?
AVOID THE SLIPPERY SLOPE. Mobile voting, or voting on a mobile app or cell phone, is currently being tested in several U.S. counties. This is a “next step” for states that have high percentages of mail-in or ballot dropbox returns. Voting in person is one way you can say, “Our elections matter, and I’m keeping
eyes on the process.”
“OF THE PEOPLE” MEANS EACH OF US. Elections were always intended to be coordinated at the local level, and effective citizen control of government requires citizen involvement. Voting in person allows you to witness the process first-hand, close to home. Voting in person is a simple way you can get more involved and gain better understanding of local government.
ELECTION DAY. Your party may be prompting you to “vote early!” but that is akin to paying income tax
on January 1st, instead of on time. There’s no benefit to you or to your vote by casting it early. In fact,
you could be hurting election integrity by giving bad actors a feedback loop (and time to react!). Some
states are using early voting statistics to justify expanding the window during which ballots are accepted.
The U.S. Constitution specifically names a single Election Day, not a whole “election season.”
WHY WOULDN’T YOU? What is worth more than your vote, expressing your consent/disagreement with government? Suffrage is the difference between free people and subjects—would you trade away that
power for the sake of convenience?
Vote in person, on election day, on a paper ballot.
Reprinted from Cause Of America
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