Timeline for Why do some states forbid pre-counting mail ballots?
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13 events
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| Nov 22, 2020 at 14:38 | history | edited | Peter | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| Nov 18, 2020 at 16:05 | comment | added | BobE | @Phillip (continued) ... to permit counties to begin processing ballots in advance of election. Simultaneously the Republican candidate is denouncing mail-in ballots as fraudulent (or something). The Republican legislature refused to act to allow pre-processing (checking the validity of mail ballots before they were opened), which created a huge labor problem on election day. | |
| Nov 18, 2020 at 15:59 | comment | added | BobE | @Phillip: Peter ought to answer your question, however, I'm going to attempt to explain what I think PA's rationale was: Pennsylvania has historically low participation in processing mailed in ballots. mainly because mail-in balloting was severely restricted. Consequently there was no pressing need to begin pre-processing ballots. No-excuse required mail-in balloting was only adopted in PA in 2020. Since there was no pressure (number of ballots), PA legislature was comfortable with delaying processing. Now comes 2020 general and the Republican PA legislature is petitioned by the SoS to permit | |
| Nov 18, 2020 at 14:50 | comment | added | PoloHoleSet | Ummm.... that IS the system that was used, and it led to long delays, which the questioner was asking about avoiding, so this doesn't seem particularly responsive to the question. If you want to say something to the effect that a couple days of delay shouldn't be a problem for anyone over 8 years old, fair enough, but this just kind of restates the cause of the "problem" that is being asked about. | |
| Nov 18, 2020 at 13:35 | comment | added | Philipp♦ | This answer explains why it should not be forbidden, but the question was asking why it is forbidden anyway. Can you explain why the states mentioned in the question do not use this system? | |
| Nov 18, 2020 at 13:27 | comment | added | BobE | Down voted as this answer does not answer the question. Rather, this answer proposes a work-around to address a problem that doesn’t exist (fear of premature partial election tallies) | |
| Nov 18, 2020 at 13:04 | history | edited | Peter | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| Nov 10, 2020 at 19:51 | comment | added | LShaver | I also recall hearing that doing it this way saves money. If there are enough mail in ballots to sway the election after in-person ballots are collected, then hire people and pay them overtime to rush through counting. If not, take your time counting them with a standard workforce not working overtime. The poll workers and election staff have enough to do in the lead-up to the election that doing it this way ends up saving time and money. | |
| Nov 10, 2020 at 16:57 | history | edited | Peter | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| Nov 10, 2020 at 16:56 | comment | added | Peter | @divibisan I wasn't trying to say early voting doesn't have anonymity. But it could work around all the other issues if it didn't. | |
| Nov 10, 2020 at 16:55 | comment | added | Peter | @divibisan Advantage 2 can be an issue with early voting, unless either early votes are processed similar or equal to mail in votes (in-person absentee voting), or disallowed - which seems to be what Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Mississippi and Alabama do, if read this right: vote.org/early-voting-calendar | |
| Nov 10, 2020 at 16:30 | comment | added | divibisan | I'm not sure how advantage 1 works, it doesn't seem like the timing of when a ballot is counted would affect its anonymity. Also advantage 2 would be just as much of an issue with early voting, which is allowed in most states | |
| Nov 10, 2020 at 16:00 | history | answered | Peter | CC BY-SA 4.0 |