Yesterday’s post by Jared Hunter on online voting has me thinking. He examined the dangers of online voting in the context of national worries about fraud. But there’s a thriving parallel discussion happening among Camden County progressives who fear the vote-by-mail system is both vulnerable to fraud and is a political disadvantage for upstarts. But that worry comes with a moral hazard; by arguing against vote-by-mail, progressives may be going against their own values by restricting access to voting. 

The origin of the local skepticism about the vote-by-mail option is rooted in several different elements of the June 2017 Democratic Primary in Camden County. In that primary, a group of progressives in Cherry Hill ran a credible primary campaign that eventually captured 37% of the vote. They lost vote-by-mail ballots by a much wider margin. To make matters worse, an opposing candidate saw vote-by-mail ballots that had been opened before the midnight deadline on the day of the election, leading to worries about election fraud. 

Those two issues have dove-tailed into a progressive skepticism of vote-by-mail. But I’m worried that the approach throws the baby out with the bathwater — that in an effort to avoid fraud (and I tend to be of the opinion that the opening of the ballots was a volunteer’s mistake, not fraud), progressives could actually undermine core principles. 

First, access to voting is really important. Progressives have been at the forefront of fighting voter intimidation, ID requirements, and other ways of suppressing the vote. Vote-by-mail is part of opening up that access to people that may struggle to take time off from work to vote, or that have mobility problems, or any other number of issues. 

Second, arguing against vote-by-mail is likely bad strategy. The program is popular. The best research we have on fraud indicates there’s not very much of it. And arguing against vote-by-mail cedes the high ground on free and fair elections to the Democratic Party. That’s a big strategic snafu because it eliminates one of the clearest areas of differentiation between the local party, and progressives seeking to challenge that party in the primary. The local party in Camden County often values loyalty, power and control above open democratic processes. When progressives argue against vote-by-mail after losing vote-by-mail by wide margins, it looks too much like doing the same. 

At its core, this is a choice of values. Progressives have been at the forefront of efforts to put accusations of fraud in proper context nationally (particularly when they come in the form of accusing immigrants of illegally voting). And progressives have been at the forefront of effort to fight back against voter suppression. Taking a local stance against vote-by-mail, grounded in concerns of fraud and the reality that local Democrats have a well-oiled GOTV operation that includes vote-by-mail, risks leaving behind those values and muddying the water. I don’t think it’s worth it.