Professor Suttmann-Lea writes about mail-in voting in The Washington Post
Assistant Professor of Government Mara Suttmann-Lea has co-authored a piece in The Washington Post that explores the potential drawbacks of voting by mail ahead of this November’s national elections.
In the era of COVID-19, many states across the U.S. are considering mail-in voting to mitigate the risk of infection for voters. According to research conducted by Suttmann-Lea and her colleagues, this could lead to a disproportionate number of ethnic minorities, young and first-time voters being disenfranchised.
The authors cite data they collected from the 2018 midterm elections in Georgia to support their conclusions and recommend solutions. They write in part:
"Mail voting may be necessary to ensure public health, but without much-needed protections—prepaid postage, voter education outreach by local election officials, an opportunity to address a missing or mismatched signature, helping voters by picking up and returning mail ballots, and counting ballots postmarked (rather than received) by Election Day—it could disenfranchise some voters."
