I’m not all that conspiratorially minded about voting and vote-counting. I think the best case for 2020 being an “unfair” election is based more on the intervention of our intel agencies into media outlets and social media. I think Republicans need to embrace every form of legal voting in their state. If there is early voting, vote early. If there is vote by mail, mail in your vote. Fine.
My major gripe with early voting is that we know too much about it. Knowing the number of Republicans and Democrats that have requested and returned ballots by such and such a date before the election tends to make the electoral process less like a snapshot and more like a hockey game, where the results are coming in over time and allowing actors to change strategy or — at the worst — resort to desperate measures.
I know this is whistling in the wind, but if I could design a voting system for the U.S., I would allow mail-in balloting for servicemen, the overseas vote, and a limited number of well-qualified people, mostly seniors or the disabled, who have their senses but cannot be counted on to get to a polling place on a given day. Presidential and congressional elections would be held on one day, which would be a federal holiday. Election Day procedures would be focused only on bringing in and securing the vote. Counting ballots would be reserved for the following day, to be called “counting day.” I know that machines make it possible, within certain margins, to have relative certainty just hours after polls close. But it’s those narrow margins and close calls that bother me, and we’ve seen how they drive people insane in real time.