Surveying Absentee Ballot Processing for 2020
Dennis Mema
Election Technology Policy Analyst
Executive Summary
This paper catalogs the general processes each of these states utilizes to count absentee ballots in the upcoming election. Elections conducted by mail vary widely from in-person elections in their administration, differing in verification of identity and/or signature, election certification dates, and processing requirements. As a result, a series of crucial questions arises concerning each state’s practices, especially within this new, COVID-influenced paradigm of election administration:
How are ballots processed in each state?
Are signature and identity verification methods electronic or human-based?
What happens if a signature is deemed invalid?
Is there an auditing of results?
What constitutes a recount?
When can we expect results?
The answers to these questions are closely linked to waning public confidence in the integrity of our elections. They also highlight potential problems arising in states as they strive to administer a safe and secure election that comes to a conclusion in less than two weeks at this writing.
This paper stops short of issuing a set of best practices or recommendations for states’ election administration, for some perhaps obvious reasons.
There is no “one-size-fits-all” solution for mail-in (absentee) voting. Each of these states has a different mail infrastructure, and different statutory constraints when it comes to implementing new measures.
There are plenty of experts in election administration process, already offering best-practices, insights, opinions, and recommendations to improve the election process.
Our focus is principally on technology infrastructure and its interplay in the elections process. Nevertheless we deem it important to call out any practices that may sow the seeds of confusion and chaos in the ballot-return process.
The OSET Institute is dedicated to providing the knowledge necessary to make informed decisions regarding the administration and security of elections, with a primary focus on technology infrastructure. However, process and platform are tightly integrated in the matters of this paper. So we’ve made an effort here to examine the processes and regulations that impact the administration of absentee ballots, as they complement our technology work.
Our hope is that this paper will serve as a resource for those interested in investigating and learning about the procedural differences among the most competitive states in the 2020 election—as we continue to research important technology innovations with potential to improve, secure, and make trustworthy our election processes going forward.
