USPS inefficiency is harmful to voters . . . and democracy
When the voter does everything right and an election worker does something wrong, the voter should win.
That is not the case in South Dakota.
The recent Mayoral run-off election in Sioux Falls is a perfect example of the problem. A few election laws need to be changed. Laws should be putting the voter first, not the bureaucratic system.
First, the U.S. Postal Service is now clearly inefficient. About 150 votes arrived after election day in Sioux Falls.
Absentee voters whose ballots are post marked before election day but arrive in the mail after election day should not be penalized.
Currently, Sioux Falls mail goes to Omaha to be sorted. I’m not sure aboutthe rest of the state. I know that I live one block from the Post Office, from which I mailed a letter to a friend living in SW Sioux Falls.
It took FIVE days to get there.
Given that kind of time horizon, I’m thinking a ten-day window for votes to arrive after election day might be sufficient.
Election supervisors know how may mail-in ballots are in circulation. They know how many are received daily. It shouldn’t be too hard to figure out if there are enough mail in ballots not received to change the outcome of the election.
Next, if an election worker neglects to put a stamp on the ballot or puts the wrong precinct number on the ballot that should NOT void the vote.(I understand about 30 votes were tossed because of election worker error).
The wishes of the voter should
ALWAYS come first, not the bureaucratic rules put in place by the legislature. If the state motto, “Under
God, the People Rule,” is true, these changes should be a no brainer.
AS of this writing we don’t know who our elected representatives will be in January. However, every one of the 105 legislators, the governor, the Secretary of State and the Attorney General should support these “voter prevails” changes.
The independent Rick Knobe is a former Sioux Falls mayor and a regular contributor to The South Dakota Standard.
Photo: public domain, wikimedia commons
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