Sam Ford/THE REVIEW
Th coronavirus pandemic has lead to an increased popularity for mail-in ballots.
BY
Contributing Reporter
With over 49 million mail-in votes already entered and counting, many Americans worry that the government will not be able to prevent voter fraud or foreign meddling from sneaking into this large influx of ballots.
President Donald Trump and his campaign have repeatedly spoken about the vulnerability of mail-in ballots, warning the public of the interference that might occur if citizens vote by mail.
“This is going to be a fraud like you’ve never seen,” Trump said, during the Sept. 29 presidential debate.
Fallon Hoffman, a senior sociology major, said she doubts these claims.
“I think Trump just likes to be the center of attention, and the polls show he’s losing his grip on peoples’ attention as the election is moving on, and I think he’s just kind of panicking,” Hoffman said.
She said that she already sent her mail-in ballot a few weeks ago and expressed confidence in the government to handle this election with the utmost caution.
“I think our government will do a good job of handling this election, even if some people try to interfere,” Hoffman said. “Everyone all over the world is watching this election so carefully, and the implications could be so large; they’ll have to be as careful as possible.”
Early polling numbers for the 2020 general election show that Americans are voting in record numbers. Over 75 million early ballots have already been cast, according to the New York Times, reaching more than 50% of the total ballots cast during the 2016 presidential election.
Despite these record numbers, students remain faithful that our government will conduct this election in a fair manner.
“I think it’s safe, no matter what, even though there’s a lot of hype saying that it isn’t safe,” Hayley Collins, a senior vocal performance major, said. “I think that everyone’s going to do the right thing, and I just have a lot of hope.”
Though Collins is voting in-person on election day, she said she doesn’t believe that these threats are as serious as some make them out to be.
Hannah Lee, a senior elementary education major, said that she is also skeptical of the theories, and believes the influx of mail-in ballots could be beneficial for determining the outcome.
“I think all of the mail-in ballots could actually help the government figure out who won more confidently, because the votes are coming in more staggered than they ever have,” Lee said. “If they register all of the ballots as they’re being mailed back, they should be able to keep the votes more organized and there won’t be a huge wave of confusion on Election Day.”
The Director of the United States Elections Project, Michael McDonald, echoed this idea on the project’s website.
“There were many concerns about election officials’ ability to conduct an election during a pandemic,” McDonald said. “Not only are people voting, but they are voting over a longer period of time, thereby spreading out the workload of election officials.”
With election day fast approaching, Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe revealed at a press conference on election security that both Russia and Iran managed to obtain voter registration information in order to obstruct the election.
Ratcliffe added that national security officials found evidence that Iran has been sending out fake emails, hoping to “intimidate voters, incite social unrest, and damage President Trump.”
The Department of Homeland Security announced that Iranian actors were also sending threatening emails to Democratic voters, claiming to be members of the far-right group, the Proud Boys.
“This data can be used by foreign actors to attempt to communicate false information to registered voters that they hope will cause confusion, sow chaos and undermine your confidence in American democracy,” Ratcliffe said.
University students similarly had concerns about this rumored obstruction.
“I feel like anything that is said, is said for a reason,” Murray said. “I hope the government tries to stop [the alleged obstruction], but I can’t say that they definitely will.”
Lee felt similarly, alluding to the notion that the current government may model their current response off the prior general election.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if other countries try to interfere, but I think that after the 2016 election, the government is going to really be looking out for people who try to,” Lee said.
