Vote-by-Mail – Deal With It – Whatever You Do, Don’t Whine, Vote

I haven’t blogged in what feels like forever because, frankly, I haven’t felt like it. It’s thankless, time consuming and the only people who care are the internet trolls.

So, here’s something for the trolls!

Governor Phil Murphy has issued Executive Order 177 “to Protect Public Health by Mailing Every Active Registered Voter a VBM Ballot Ahead of the General Election.”

How I feel about this executive order does not matter. How you feel about this executive order does not matter. How any of us feels about vote-by-mail does not matter. Murphy has issued the order and now we must deal with it.

Murphy is not going to change his mind. It doesn’t matter that earlier today Gloucester County GOP Chairwoman Jacci Vigilante offered a commonsense solution that would allow folks to vote on machines at polling places.

Like it or not, we have to deal with an election conducted primarily through vote-by-mail.

Guess what! We had to deal with it anyway, albeit to a lesser extent. Statewide, the percentage of voters to cast ballots via mail has increased year after year to 16.7% in 2019, up from 2.6% in the 2003 general election (see here).

I’ve been filling out a vote-by-mail ballot every general election since 2016, but I never mail my ballot and always drive it to the Board of Elections myself.

I haven’t voted by mail because I like it, I’ve voted by mail because I am a fan of early voting. I always voted early back in New Mexico and since moving back to Jersey decided to look at VBM as a form of early voting.

Those of you who listen to the radio show have heard me say repeatedly that we no longer have “Election Day,” but instead have “Election Season.”

To that point, even if Governor Murphy had not issued Executive Order 177, VBM ballots were scheduled to commence mailing on September 19 by statute.

Granted, far fewer voters would be receiving VBM ballots without the executive order, but a sizeable number of voters would still be getting ballots and any campaign that ignored that fact was destined to lose.

Now, even with the executive order, there is nothing that says one cannot still go vote at a polling place. It may not be the polling place one usually goes to given the fact that each municipality is to have at least one polling place open and counties are required to have half as many as normal.

The difference is if you choose to cast your ballot at a polling place it will be by provisional ballot. And, before you start saying something stupid, provisional ballots are counted. They are counted last to make sure one hasn’t already voted by another method, in this case by mail, first.

Voting by provisional ballot means you will not be voting on the machine. You will be voting on paper.

Voting on paper is not a bad thing. That’s how most of the states in the nation do it. I haven’t voted on a machine since 2009, after that election I moved to New Mexico and I voted on paper at the polls in that state every year. The difference – in NM I put my ballot in the scanner at the polling place, in New Jersey, whether provisional or VBM your ballot gets put in the scanner at your county’s Board of Elections by an election worker. There are commissioners at the Board of Elections, equal in number, from both the Republican and Democratic parties.

Because provisional ballots are counted last, if you decide to go to the polls and vote, do not complain if it takes a month to get final election results. Do not expect the results that come in on election night to hold, they may change based on the number of people who decide to go to the polls and vote on paper.

So, rather than whine and cry that thanks to the Governor’s executive order many, many more folks are going to vote-by-mail, let’s deal with it and do things to try and win.

Republican committee people do what you were elected to do and contact your voters in your district. Encourage them to fill out their VBM ballot and return it. If they need help, go help them, just remember to sign as an assistor if you actually assist.

Host a voting party. Invite your friends over. Have them bring their ballots. Make an evening out of it. Everyone can vote together. Turn it into a drinking game. Vote for President Donald Trump, do a shot, then vote for Rik Mehta for U.S. Senate, do a shot. Vote for your Republican candidate for Congress, do a shot, all the way down the ballot to the municipal level. Just make sure you have a designated driver at the party.

Hate the way the system is? Change it. The only way to change it is to change who holds office. The only way to change who holds office is to vote under the system that is in place. Electing a new Senator, new Representatives, new Freeholders and municipal officeholders means new people with a new bully pulpit to change things.

Whatever you do – vote – by mail or by provisional ballot, but vote. Don’t sit behind your computer posting crap on Twitter and Facebook about how unfair life is. That won’t change anything and is a sure way to lose.