Attention in the US presidential election What is the mail vote

Attention in the US presidential election What is the mail vote 13:54 on August 25

US presidential election voted in November. The ruling politics of the ruling and opposition parties is intensifying over the "postal voting."

President Trump "Became a Hotbed of Injustice"

A postal vote is a form in which voters vote by filling out the ballot form that has been mailed to them and then returning it or throwing it at a designated post.

President Trump has been clearing his opposition since the beginning of the debate on postal voting due to the spread of the new coronavirus. This time, when he appeared on a TV program in March, he said, "If you introduce a mail vote, you will never be able to win a Republican candidate in the United States again." He claims that he will continue to "become a hotbed of fraud."

Opposition parties, the Democratic Party and the Biden camp, on the other hand, have indicated that they should take necessary steps, saying that postal voting should be easier to use to prevent the spread of infection.

Will there be fraud in postal voting?

President Trump argues that postal voting is not enough to verify identity, and that large-scale fraud can occur by falsifying ballots or by impersonating another person filling out a ballot and mailing it. I will.

However, it does not show the specific basis.

Experts, meanwhile, say that postal voting is unlikely to cause large-scale fraud.

The reason is that many states have introduced mechanisms to prevent fraud, such as confirming that the signature written in the voter registration in advance and the signature written on the ballot are the same. ..

Twenty years ago, when Western Oregon introduced the first system in the United States to use postal voting for all registered voters for the first time, former Secretary of State Phil Keesling was interviewed by NHK for an interview. "There is no mechanism for serious fraud in the past 20 years because there is a mechanism to verify the identity by comparing it with the signature registered in advance," he said.

In addition, I was told that if you are prepared to go to jail and forge it, you should use 100 dollar bills instead of coins, but if you cheat in the election, you will do it another way. He pointed out that fraudulent forgery of each signature is inefficient and unlikely to occur.

And by saying, "Postal voting can prevent people from being unable to go to the most fundamental constitutional right to vote due to bad weather, overtime, children getting sick, etc." It will lead to an improvement in the rate.

What is the impact on election results?

In the US presidential election, there is generally a view that if the voting rate rises, it will be advantageous to Democratic candidates, and President Trump seems to be wary that it will be disadvantageous for himself.

However, some studies do not favor one of the Republican or Democratic candidates, so there are mixed views among experts.

President Trump repeatedly asked the question whether he would accept the result of the election, saying that "I do not know until then", and the American media avoids a statement, and if President Trump is defeated himself, a fraud by post vote will be done. Some say that they may argue that they will not accept the election results and that they may end up in a legal battle.

Conflict intensifies with new post of post office

The controversy over postal voting by the ruling and opposition parties was exacerbated in June by the appointment of Mr. Dijoy, who made a fortune in the management of a logistics company, as the new top of the postal company responsible for implementing it.

Dijoy, known as a major Republican contributor, made a large contribution to the Trump camp in the last 2016 presidential election.

The post office, under President Dijoy, sent a letter to the Elections Commissions of each state late last month, and the system of each state was designed without assuming the time it would take to collect and deliver ballots, so the final deadline was reached. I warned that a large number of invalid votes may be issued in time.

In addition, the media reports reveal that some of the postal sorting machines and post boxes have been removed, staff overtime hours have been reduced, and mail delivery has been delayed.

In response to this, the Democratic Party has criticized that Mr. Dejoy is trying to interfere with the postal vote at the intention of President Trump.
In addition, six states including California sued Mr. Dijoy's policy of reducing sorting machines etc. as a lawsuit and filed a lawsuit against the court on the 22nd, and a nationwide protest demonstration occurred ``By disturbing voting, democracy is in danger The rebound against Mr. Dejoy has spread.

On the other hand, Mr. Dijoy said that the removal of the mail post has been regularly done for efficiency so far, and the delay in delivery is due to the fact that the staff has not been able to secure enough due to the influence of the new coronavirus. , All the criticism of the Democratic party's obstruction is "outrageous."

On the other hand, in the parliament, on the 22nd, the Democratic Party passed a bill to record a huge budget of 25 billion dollars and JPY 264 billion in Japanese yen in response to the rapid increase in postal voting in the presidential election, but President Trump and The Republicans oppose that increased mail voting can be fraudulent, and political confrontation is intensifying.

Expanding mail voting with the new Corona

In the United States, in response to the spread of the new coronavirus, many states are changing or easing the postal voting system to make postal voting easier to use.

The rules for using the post ballot are set for each state that manages the ballot, and it is only accepted when there are unavoidable circumstances such as work. Usability varies depending on the state in which the vote is submitted and all registered voters are allowed to vote by mail and automatically send ballots.

Mail voting tends to increase with each election, accounting for about a quarter of the total votes in the last 2016 elections.

In order to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus this time, many states have changed or eased the system to make post voting easier to use, and a ballot will be automatically given to all registered voters. The number of mailing states has increased from five states so far to nine states including California and Nevada and the capital Washington, and more than 30 states do not require special circumstances for voting by mail or prevent infection with the new coronavirus It is available for the reason.

There is also a strong demand for voters to vote by mail, and in the April research conducted by Pew Research Center, 70 people answered "yes" to "make mail voting available to all." % Has been reached. For this reason, there is a possibility that the number of mail votes will increase significantly in this presidential election, and there is also a view that it is more than double the number of the previous election and about half of the total number of votes.

There is also confusion with the vote counting work

On the other hand, the challenges have become clear.

This past June, in the primaries of the US House of Representatives in eastern New York, the number of New York City postal votes last year exceeded 400,000, more than ten times more than four years ago. However, it took six weeks for many votes to be invalid because of late arrival or lack of post office, and because it took time to select the votes, the election results were finalized and the winners were decided. ..

If this is done on a national scale, the issue is how to avoid a situation where a large number of invalid votes are not delivered in time and confusion occurs in the counting work, and the media is selecting and confusing invalid votes. It also points out that it may take several days to several weeks for the election results to be known, depending on the degree of.