Mail-in voting has begun in Washington state and a neighbor of mine in NE Seattle had a very bad experience, which provides a cautionary tale for all of us. On Saturday, my neighbor, let's call her Jane, placed her absentee ballot in her mailbox, raised the flag on her mailbox, and headed out for a day of canvassing. She returned later that day to find her ballot gone and a batch of newly arrived mail so, of course, she assumed her ballot was on it's merry way to the local elections board. Follow me over the fold to find out what really happened...
Around 7pm that evening a stranger drove into her driveway, knocked on her door, and presented Jane with the torn and crumpled remains of her ballot. This good Samaritan had been walking a few blocks away, where she had come across the mangled ballot. The outer envelope and the inner security envelope had both been unsealed, the ballot itself crumpled, and the entire package had been discarded on the street. Fortunately, the return address on the outer envelope was still legible, which led to it's safe return.
The good news is that Jane requested, and will soon obtain, a replacement ballot and, thanks to the kindness of a stranger, her vote will not be lost. However, this raises an important consideration for all mail-in voters: external household mailboxes are not always entirely secure. Although mail theft is a felony, we've all seen how this election is bringing out the worst behavior in some of our opponents. Consequently, I think by-mail voters should strongly consider hand delivering their completed ballot to a secure USPS collection box or, better yet, take it to an authorized ballot drop location managed by your local elections board.
The chance of something like this happening to any individual voter is likely to be quite low, however, sometimes a little paranoia can be healthy. Wherever possible, let's all take an extra step to make sure our mail-in votes are counted by hand carrying them to a secure collection point.