Millions of Mail-In Ballots at Risk in Battleground States

[applegrove]

Millions of Mail-In Ballots at Risk in Battleground States

October 31, 2020 at 3:30 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard 44 Comments

https://politicalwire.com/2020/10/31/millions-of-mail-in-ballots-at-risk-in-battleground-states/

"SNIP...


More than seven million mailed ballots had not been returned in the 13 most competitive states that require ballots to arrive on or before Election Day, the Wall Street Journal reports.

That’s about 28% of the more than 24 million ballots that had been tallied in those states.

Many of the states, including Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona and Florida, were narrowly won in the 2016 presidential election, in some cases by only a few thousand votes, making the outstanding ballots potentially critical to figuring a winner this time around.

.....SNIP"

[Drunken Irishman]

1. This is just lazy writing and fearmongering at this point.

1) Some states send out mail-in ballots to EVERY registered voter. Yet from history, we know turnout is not likely to break 60% (it hasn't in generations). So, on that alone, there's going to be a significant amount of ballots not returned.

2) This doesn't consider voters who will vote in person that were potentially spooked off from voting by mail.

3) Republicans, on the whole, have returned fewer mail-in ballots than Democrats.

Take Pennsylvania, 74% of the ballots have been returned by voters. Democrats have returned theirs by nearly 80% - Republicans only 66%.

76% of Democrats in Florida have returned their ballots. 74.6% of Republicans.

This is just throwing a bunch of numbers at the wall and trying to make a point without clearly defining the numbers.

It serves no purpose other than to push the horse race narrative.

[LisaL]

4. And in states who send ballots to every eligible voter, many people presumably want to vote in

person. So the ballots not returned doesn't mean persons not voted. Many states allow people to vote in person even if they received absentee ballots.

[applegrove]

6. Well if it gets Democrats off their ***es and to the polls on Tuesday,

especially the young, then i am all for worst case scenario stories.

[Drunken Irishman]

7. The assumption is that Democrats aren't voting - that isn't proven.

But trust me, negative stories can have the opposite effect on races and demoralize voters who sense their guy is going to lose.

[secondwind]

10. Agreed...

[Polly Hennessey]

2. I agree with you. For two days we will

hear little else. Wait until the results are in before celebrating or wringing your hands.

[coti]

3. Yeah, a sizable percentage of registered voters don't vote.

Why would they expect it to be that different with mail-in votes?

[Drunken Irishman]

5. That's it exactly. We haven't seen 60%+ voting in a generation (1968).

This year won't be any different, even if voting is up. There's still going to be roughly 40% of registered voters, at best, who don't vote.

[Danmel]

8. I ordered an absentee ballot to be safe if I couldn't vote in person

Which I did on Monday, so my absentee ballot will remain unreturned.

[Awsi Dooger]

9. Mail ballot return rate is not as clear cut this year

Since some states sent ballots to every voter, but many of those will vote in-person anyway.

In 2016, 79.9% of ballots were returned.