On the mail-in voting issue:
It is wrong to require people to go through the normal voting procedures given the ramifications of Covid-19. Depending on the individuals health, this is risking their life to vote. I have a friend who is 92 and is by all appearances, and talking to him, in great health; but he certainly looks at Covid 19 as something not to play Russian Roulette with.
However, if the concern is so great over fraud with mail-in ballots, it seems like some variation of dedicated ballot drop boxes at the same schools/churches run similar to the way the drive-through/walk-through Covid-19 testing is done. A group of people more familiar could work it out; but, for example, I might imagine a sheet of plastic with a hole for passing ID back and forth (or the owner could display it through the hole while the poll worked verified it) and then handing the completed ballot to the worker and the voter watches it go through scanner and put into secure box for paper backup. (I assume they use scanners, but however it is done, this does not seem hard if the current administration wanted to do it - you could have the same checks currently used indoors being done outside.
A little more interesting, it seems like ATM's could easily be adapted to record person holding up ID, posing for face pic, and deposit ballot. Probably couldn't happen this year, but I could see it as the future of voting!
Why is it 'wrong'? If doing something puts someone at high risk of illness, death, etc, it's prudent for them to avoid it and this is a great example of why someone might use an absentee ballot. It's for people who can't or shouldn't vote in person but as long as enough space is allowed for healthy people to go in and if they don't need to stay for too long, the risk would be about the same as going to a grocery store, the post office, etc.
As I have posted, some places (like Milwaukee) have had years of problems with mailed-in ballots and even paper ballots that were being transported. I don't know why the process hasn't been standardized here- it makes no sense. The place where I vote has paper ballots that are fed into machines that count the votes, then boxed for recount. I haven't voted at another location in almost 25 years, so I haven't seen them personally, but when I see news reports and they show the polling places, I don't see the machines.
"The current administration" has nothing to do with how ballots are counted- it's up to the states to decide. Remember the hanging chads in the 2000 election? That wouldn't happen where I vote, but it may still be possible elsewhere.
You want people to hold up an ID, yet places like Wisconsin have been wrangling over exactly that for years- some want it and they're called 'racist', told that it would disenfranchise people from voting. This is bullcrap- anyone who drives legally has a license, others are required to have a state ID. Anyone collecting government benefits needs an ID, as does anyone trying to open a bank account, buy liquor, cash a check, members of the military, etc.
