California to Vote By Mail Amidst the Pandemic

By Kaitlyn Fontaine

Photo by Tiffany Tertipes on Unsplash.

All voters in California will be able to vote by mail in the November 3rd election following Executive Order N-64-20 issued by Governor Gavin Newsom.

The executive order was created in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and orders voting packets to be mailed to each registered voter in California. The packets include materials needed to cast a ballot by mail.

Evelyn Mendez, Manager of Public and Legislative Affairs at the Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters, said that Santa Clara was already a Voter’s Choice Act county. Counties that conduct elections under the Voter’s Choice Act previously mail every registered voter a ballot. 

“It is something that we did in March, and the majority of the county was already vote-by-mail before that. I think in March, we had 87 percent of our county vote-by-mail,” Mendez said. 

Concerns have been raised throughout the country about the effect mail-in ballots will have on the election. Specifically, there have been claims that vote-by-mail will threaten personal privacy, disproportionately impact one party over another, and increase voter fraud.

Mike Shapiro, the Chief Privacy Officer of Santa Clara County, said one of the concerns is that mail-in ballots are a threat to personal privacy, but said those same privacy concerns could exist while voting in person. 

“With mail-in voting, that is something you can do in the privacy of your own home. When you are actually writing what your choices are in the ballot, you can have a little bit more privacy in that respect and be able to cast your ballot in a very safe way,” Shapiro said.  

Jennifer Wu, a PhD student at Stanford University, co-authored The Neutral Partisan Effects of Vote-by-Mail: Evidence from County-Level Roll-Outs. The article discusses changes in terms of voter turnout and partisan rates of voting. In the study, counties in Utah, Washington, and California were examined to determine what effects mail-in voting had on partisan participation. 

“The change in Democratic and Republican vote share is negligible when counties implement their vote-by-mail programs. There is no real difference and no real partisan advantage when these programs are implemented,” Wu said. “We do see an increase in two points in overall turnout, but no advantage for either party.” 

In a more recent study, Wu and her team analyzed the 2020 primary elections in Texas. They looked to see if the option for any person over the age of 65 to vote absentee without needing to supply an excuse led to an advantage for one political party over another. 

“We see voters who are more aware of COVID-19 substituting into vote-by-mail, so there is not really a fact where vote-by-mail is benefiting one party more than another,” Wu said. 

Mendez said there is a fear of mail-in ballots creating an issue of voting fraud. 

“Across the United States, any election official will say that it is hard to have a fraudulent vote-by-mail ballot. There are so many checks, there are so many Logic and Accuracy tests. A lot of people are saying that [fraud will occur], but there is no proof of it actually happening,” Wu said. 

Logic and Accuracy tests are measures counties take to verify the validity of the ballot counting process. 

Voters can track their ballots online from the moment it is mailed to them at home to every step of the process. 

Mendez said that once the ballot reaches the office of the Registrar of Voters, it will be reviewed by an automatic and manual process. If there is a discrepancy discovered, the ballot’s owner will be contacted and have a chance to correct the mistake. 

“Our numbers are really low for ballots that get rejected because we are making every attempt to reach out to those voters,” Mendez said.

Shapiro said he’s not worried about mail-in voter fraud. 

“I think more of our concerns are how voter fraud occurs with fraud of the mind, with fraud of people’s perception of what is the truth,” Shapiro said.   

He said that both misinformation—the passive spreading of false information—and disinformation—the active spreading of false information—are playing an active role leading up to the November election. 

“Both passive and active actors are contributing to a problem,” Shapiro said. “The disinformation part of it is very concerning because these are people that are actively trying to disrupt elections. They are trying to give false information, influence people to vote one way or another, and instigate a sense of loss of integrity. That no matter what the results are, if it doesn't go your way then it’s fraud.”

Shapiro said self-education might be a potential solution for this issue. 

“Make sure that you are a well-rounded voter, that you are a well-informed voter, and that you are not just hearing from one or two sources that tend to reinforce your current thought process. Go out there and look for other information, information that challenges you and your current mindset. [This] will allow people to make better informed choices whether it is with voting, or anything else,” Shapiro said.  

Voters in Santa Clara County have options to vote in the general election: vote-by-mail and return your ballot by mail or in a local drop box, or vote in person at any vote center in the county. Mendez said mail-in ballots need to be postmarked by November 3rd and arrive at the Registrar of Voters office within 17 days of the election. 

(Editor's Note: This article was originally published in the October 2020 [Volume 51, Issue 1] edition of The Advocate.)