Early vote shows signs of Black voters' shift to mail voting

[RandySF]

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Shirley Dixon-Mosley had never sent a ballot through the mail. She always treasured casting her ballot in person. But for November’s election, she voted early and by mail because she didn’t want to take any chances.

“I want to make sure my vote got in and it counted,” said the 75-year-old retired teacher’s aide in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Black voters are among the least likely to vote by mail nationally, but there are early signs they are changing their behavior as the shadow of the coronavirus hangs over the presidential race. The evidence is clearest in North Carolina, the first state in the nation to send out mail-in ballots and where voting has been underway for almost three weeks. But there are hints in other battleground states like Georgia and Pennsylvania.

The signal are good news for Democrats, who will need a robust turnout by Black voters in these states to win both the White House and control of the U.S. Senate. With coronavirus increasing the risk of in-person voting, African American mail voting rates are one indicator of whether that key part of the Democratic coalition will participate at its regular clip.




https://apnews.com/article/election-2020-race-and-ethnicity-north-carolina-elections-voting-2020-40a44a85e544366b8e3c428ff375ff21

[Boogiemack]

1. I hope there are strong security measures out there to insure that all these votes are counted.

My family in GA are making copies of their ballots for their records. I never thought of that until one of them mentioned it during a family zoom call. (Most are taking phone shots.)

[Drunken Irishman]

2. This is good. Some of the worst cases of voting intimidation/suppression is in their communities.

It's not a coincidence that the longest lines are often found in black or minority communities on election day. With fewer voting places open due to the pandemic, the wait may be hours longer on top of that. This makes me happy.

[moonscape]

3. Me too, except for all the ways they can reject ballots,

NC requiring a witness, signatures changed over the years, etc.

I'm a first-time mail voter in CA and although I'm sure my vote will count (great tracking, will drop off personally early, etc), I'm definitely not sure what my signature looked like when I registered to vote (many) decades ago. It's similar but exact? Probably not.

[Drunken Irishman]

4. I'd take that risk over losing thousands because the wait is 5 hours.

I often wonder how many people fail to vote after standing in line for hours before just giving up? Or those who never vote anyway because of how long it takes in general? Or, worse, how many people may have refused to vote during a pandemic if the mail in ballots were not an option?

I actually think this is why Trump is starting to tell his supporters to vote by mail. I bet they polled on it and saw that a decent amount of their support might not vote in-person due to the pandemic.