Americans may have to wait days for final election results this year, election experts warn, as the pandemic drives voters to absentee ballots. Since Republicans favor in-person voting while Democrats are more inclined to vote absentee, President Trump may perform better on Election Day than in the days that follow, as mail-in votes are tallied.
All that has raised alarms about a crisis of public confidence in the election result, particularly given Trump’s recent attacks on mail-in voting. Recent primaries marred by long lines, lost absentee ballots and malfunctioning machines have intensified fears of an Election Day meltdown.
The one saving grace in all this, as I wrote recently in The Fulcrum, is that mail-in voting is broadly embraced within the GOP. For all the partisan disputes that have bogged down election administration, voting by mail has been one area of growing bipartisan agreement.
Also in the latest Civic Voice, I write about polls showing an uptick in hope, even as Americans grapple with the pandemic, unemployment and racial reckoning, and about how philosophy educators are helping students navigate these challenging times. Read the whole July Civic Voice HERE.