Thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, a record number of Americans chose to vote by mail in the 2020 election, Why expose yourself to this awful disease by waiting on line to crowd into your voting location when Mail-In Voting is so much more convenient and safer?
In previous years, my wife, who was helping to care for our daughter in a different state, had good experiences with Absentee Ballots. So, for the 2020 election, we both applied for Mail-In Ballots and, for the first time in my life (at the age of 82!) I voted that way.
The ballots showed up in our mailbox weeks before Election Day, giving us plenty of time to mark them in the comfort and privacy of our home, and seal them in the provided envelopes. I was pleased the envelopes included a security shield to prevent anyone from seeing how we voted without opening the envelope. There was a place, on the outside of the envelope, for my signature.
We could have mailed our ballots, but we chose to drive to the County Office and hand them in in-person. The voting official who took our ballots checked that the envelope had been properly "signed, sealed, and delivered". I believe I saw her slide the envelope into a machine that applied a time-stamp, and then she slipped it into a secure ballot box.
Security of In-Person Voting
My experience with In-Person Voting, both in my original home state (New York) as well as where I live now (Florida), was that I had to be registered in that voting precinct, show a government-issued ID, and sign the voting roll, where my signature could be compared with previous examples. The registration process was quite secure.
In recent years here in Florida, voter registration has required a drivers license (or the equivalent government-issued document for non-drivers or persons who have given up driving) that meets the requirements of the REAL ID Act passed by Congress in 2005 (see Real ID Act - Wikipedia).
My wife and I moved here from New York almost 20 years ago. She ran into a bit of a problem getting a Florida drivers license because the first name on her birth certificate ("Viola") did not match the one she has used since she was a school-girl ("Violet"). She used a recent US passport to prove she was a US citizen under her current name.
Thus, In-Person Voting in Florida is pretty secure! It requires Proof of Identity (and citizenship):
- Possession of a government-issued REAL ID card,
- A face that matches to photo on the REAL ID card, and
- A mailing address that matches the one on the REAL ID card.
Security of Mail-In Voting
To get a Mail-In Ballot for the 2020 vote, I had to be a registered voter, fill out and sign an application form, and receive the ballot at the registered mailing address.