One Vote, Many Obstacles
My quest to submit an absentee ballot began easily enough. Since I had realized early on that the Missouri presidential primary was taking place over spring break, I had ample time to send in a request for an absentee ballot, and simply had to check a box stating that I needed one because I would be out of town during the primary. But the fact that I even had to check that box indicates that Missouri has somewhat strict voting laws.
Twenty-seven states (plus D.C.) allow citizens to either vote early or vote absentee without any sort of excuse. Another seven states provide for early voting, but require an excuse for absentee voting. Three more conduct their elections solely by mail. Missouri is among the unlucky 13 that require all voters to cast their ballots on a specific day, or provide an excuse if they must do so beforehand.
“Provide an excuse” does not seem like too onerous of a commitment; all I had to do was check a box. Yet the difficulties involved in casting my ballot only increased from there. Once I received my ballot (which only happened in time because I’m a political junkie who checked the primary schedule far enough in advance to mail out an absentee request, receive my ballot, and mail it back in time for the primary), I came across another wrinkle. After proudly filling out my little bubble, I realized that I would have to get my ballot notarized.
A few inquiries at Olin Library led me to a (suddenly very busy) notary who had an office on the second floor of the building. I made an appointment with her for the next day and returned then to have my ballot notarized. Afterward, I dropped it in the mailbox.
This micro-ordeal led me to wonder why Missouri required me to jump through so many hoops in order to exercise a foundational right. Ostensibly, voter ID laws exist to prevent voter fraud (a claim that is dubious enough on its own, given the minute amount of voter fraud in the US). However, requiring a notarized ballot adds an extra layer of difficulty to the voting process without even effectively protecting against fraud.
Illustrating the inability of the notary requirement to protect against fraud, the absentee ballot lists several options the voter can choose from when selecting the reason he or she requires such a ballot. One of the options is “incapacity or confinement due to illness or physical disability, including a person who is primarily responsible for the physical care of a person who is incapacitated or confined due to illness or disability.” An asterisk on this option notes that those selecting this choice do not require a notary. So had I wanted to commit voter fraud in some way, I could have simply selected the non-notary option and mailed in my ballot, and it still would have counted. Thus, through this loophole, one could easily circumvent the burdensome mechanism put in place to inhibit voter fraud.
To take a step back for a moment: why am I so distraught over having to find a notary? In truth, it wasn’t too difficult for me; it took a few minutes to find a notary on Google, then two separate 10-minute trips that were hardly out of my way.
The problem is that submitting this ballot was easy for me: a college student with plenty of time on his hands at one of the wealthiest institutions in the country. It is not as simple for so many other Missourians.
Consider all of the obstacles that could easily trip up someone without such easy access to information and resources. Voters have to know the date of the election several weeks in advance, so that they have time to mail in an absentee request, receive their ballots, and send them back in before election day. Already, anyone who doesn’t follow the primary races particularly closely has lost their chance to exercise their most fundamental democratic right. But assume that a voter does keep relatively up-to-date with politics. That citizen still has to find a notary, go out of his or her way to make an appointment, and then physically visit an office that could be well out-of-the-way. And since notaries are likely only available during business hours, voters have to leave work early, skip their lunch hour, lose some sleep, or be late picking up their kids from school in order to get a simple piece of paper signed.
Yes, this only affects absentee voters, but the state of Missouri should not be making it more difficult for any of her citizens to vote. And this is not just a Missouri problem: many states across the US suffer from long lines, dysfunctional machines, and poorly-communicated ID laws, which serve to depress voter turnout. State government officials can either choose to make voting as painless as possible, or they can choose to throw up arbitrary barriers that will disproportionately harm their most vulnerable constituents. We will all be worse off so long