The Case for In Person Mail In Voting
Vote with mail-in ballots. It’s time for conservatives to play this game, too. As I’ve said for years, fight fire with fire. But I’ll make the case, one more time — with an important twist.
Now, you can vote-by-mail — in-person — and all in one stop. Fill out your application and submit your ballot before Election Day. In our state’s semi-organized election system — where mail-in voting has been in place since 2020 by law and drop-boxes have been permitted since the state Supreme Court allowed it, because the law doesn’t prohibit it — you can use a “mail-in” ballot to vote early. You can even do it in person.
Yes, it sounds bizarre, but so is much of Pennsylvania election law.
Rather than requesting a mail-in ballot online or filling out a paper application and mailing it into your county’s voters services office, you can go in-person. Go to an “Early Voting” location in your county and take along your ID. (Yes, ID!) There, you complete a “mail-in” application on-site — it takes about two minutes. You hand in your application and — assuming all’s well — you get your ballot then and there, plus the security envelope. Fill out your ballot, put it into the security envelope, sign the outer envelope, and hand it in. Presto, you have voted early using “mail-in” voting in person. Your civic duty is done.
Many Republican voters have been apprehensive to vote by mail. Some believe voting should occur on only one day so they hold themselves to that standard. Some don’t trust the process — too many steps, too many opportunities for error.
Well, for better or worse, county election officials have cut out a few steps, and the ballots touch fewer hands. You, the voter, get to turn in your own ballot to an election official.
Each county in our state has at least one “in-person” mail-in voting location. Find your county’s here. Chester County has three, Philadelphia has nine so far.
Now that it’s easier to “vote by mail” in person — what other states such as Florida, North Carolina, and Georgia call “early voting” — and there are fewer steps in the process and you can personally hand your ballot to an election official, there’s no excuse not to “bank your vote.”
(For the record—it’s public record, I vote by mail and have for several elections. And, yes, I actually mail in my ballot. After I’ve “banked my vote” and done my part, I’m free to help on Election Day.)
Still not convinced? I’ve made the case for why conservatives and all those supporting Republicans should get over their apprehensions and use this new method, as Democrats and the voters supporting them have been doing for years. As I’ve detailed, in Pennsylvania in 2020, Joe Biden led Donald Trump by 1.4 million votes before the polls opened on Election Day due to mail-in voting. Despite “winning” Election Day by 1.3 million votes, Trump fell short.
That’s why the GOP and its allies started their own programs — “bank the vote,” “swamp the vote.” Here in Pennsylvania, it’s “Skip the Line.”
As a refresher, here’s why you should vote early and use “vote by mail”— with only two weeks to go, by going in person to an “early voting” location in your county.
Better safe than sorry. You never know what may happen in your life — or your family’s lives — on Election Day. An unexpected illness, injury, having to care for an out of state relative, your child misses her bus, soccer games get rescheduled, you missed your flight back from Boston.
Your vote is “in the bank,” so you have peace of mind. Your work is done. And, in most counties, you’ll even get an email confirming that your ballot has been received.
Multiply your effort. Volunteer for your favorite candidate on Election Day! Think of the time that you put into voting in person on Election Day in a presidential election. Use that hour, 90 minutes or more to help. Stand at the polls, call, or email voters who haven’t voted.
Voting early is like making a $100 contribution to your candidate and saving campaign volunteers hours to go after other voters. In this world where candidates and parties track early voting every day, and in our world where digital commercials and texts come directly to you, if your candidate’s campaign knows that you’ve cast your ballot, you’re saving them money, and time. One less voter to call, email, text or to knock on their door.
It’s 2024. Who knows what could happen on Election Day. Already, the Department of Justice announced that one would-be terrorist was arrested for plotting to disrupt Election Day. Don’t allow a foreign or domestic terrorist or power outages, fire or worse, to cancel your Vote.
Yes, this is not our parents’ voting system. And, yes, it’s imperfect. But the rules have changed. If we win, we can bring sanity — and voter ID — to our election system. But, so far, only one party has taken advantage of “early voting.”
There’s too much at stake. It’s time for the rest of us to skip the lines and bank our votes.
Guy Ciarrocchi is a writer with Broad + Liberty and RealClear Pennsylvania. Guy was a Republican nominee for Congress and former Chamber CEO. Follow Guy at @PaSuburbsGuy.
