Voting by mail makes sense

Boy, we can sure politicize every issue in the country, can't we? It seems that the political divide can be attached to any issue, even ones concerning science, medicine and sports. I used to joke that it wouldn't be long before we assign political leanings to professional sports teams - the "Minnesota Viking Liberals" or the "Green Bay Packer Conservatives." You get the idea.

So I was curious to see how emotional people get about mail-in voting.

Voting is a fundamental right in our democracy. That's why there's so much arguing about it. We know that we can affect elections more easily by manipulating votes than we can by good clean campaigning. If we can just prevent a few of those people from voting, our side will win! If only we can get a few more unregistered people to the polls, we can win.

Gerrymandering is another scar on the voting rights of the people. Maps are drawn so each district or precinct has about the same number of voters. That's because - in America - we vote based on population, not social status, economics, age or religion. Maps should be drawn as rectangular as possible, and they were for a long time. Then someone realized they could redraw the maps with subtle changes that favor their political candidate or party.

The result? Elected officials who don't represent their district, but rather represent their party. That's fine, if that's the system we want. But I prefer democracy. It forces liberal candidates, for example, to bend and acknowledge some conservative viewpoints. And it makes elected bodies work together for solutions. We've seen it work. I'd like to see it again.

The latest voting crisis is the mail-in option. Liberals love the concept because it gets more people to vote. Conservatives are concerned that misuse of mail-in ballots could affect their candidates. As with any issue where each side takes such a hardline approach, the truth lies somewhere in the middle. Liberals want more people to vote because more people identify themselves as liberal than they do as conservative. Statistically, more voters means more victories for the left. Conservatives know this as well, and since their voters are already more likely to vote, mail-in ballots won't add more victories to their side, and may even cost them a few seats.

The biggest drawback to mail-in voting is the potential for fraud, undue pressure, or multiple votes cast by the same person. Those issues can be easily addressed. Voter fraud - despite the unfair media hype - is virtually nonexistent in Minnesota. How do I know this? Well, just a few years ago, every single ballot was scrutinized by members of each party, because the Senate election was so close. No fraud was uncovered.

Undue pressure and multiple ballots does concern me, though. An 18-year-old child, living at home and voting for the first time, can be heavily influenced by her parents, but once she's in the voting booth, she can vote how she wants. That's more risky if she's voting at home with her parents watching. Also, it would be so easy for Dad, for example, to take all the adults' ballots and fill them out himself.

I'm in favor of mail-in ballots for this upcoming election cycle, but I am uneasy about it. We need to trust that the kinks are worked out in advance. Voting by mail has been done successfully before: most of the military service votes by mail, several states are doing it, and even Minnesota has been using absentee ballots successfully for years. There's no reason we can't expand it for this election, at least, as we continue to worry about the spread of the coronavirus. After this season, we can take a look at the system and tweak it. That's my suggestion.

Pete Radosevich is the publisher of the Pine Knot News and an attorney in Esko who hosts the talk show Harry's Gang on CAT-7. Reach him at at Pete.Radosevich @PineKnotNews.com.