To the editor:

The national election legislation currently under debate not solve any problems while creating an important problem the system is currently robust to.

Prior to the 2020 election in most states valid voters received absentee ballots by actively requesting an application. Absentee ballots would be provided after verification that the applicant was a registered voter in the particular district. Under this system, the voting role could contain untold numbers of invalid voters without posing any real risk of cheating. Any number of incorrectly registered names could be on the list for whatever reason, perhaps they moved, they passed away, or had a name change through marriage. The voter roles are unavoidable salted with many invalid voters, however their presence in the voter roles cannot be easily exploited because most voters don’t know the names of these invalid registrations, so there is no ready mechanism for voters to request a ballot for one or more of these invalid registrants.

Under the newly proposed methodology which was used in 2020 in some states, voters are essentially invited to cheat because the names of invalid registrants are revealed to potential cheaters when the ballot applications for valid and invalid voters are sent out to residents. This new approach actually invites cheating, creating a new problem that secretaries of state would need to solve. The solution to this new problem is to purge and carefully monitor the voter registration roles, which is expensive and prone to errors. Identifying the whereabouts of past voters to verify their validity is difficult and most likely an ongoing intractable problem requiring invasive levels of tracing routine practices of moving, getting married and death. Most of us who have moved recently are probably registered in two or more districts because few people contact secretaries of state to infofrm them that they no longer reside in their past voting district.

Under the current practice where absentee votes are solicited by actual voters, there is no need for voter roles to be accurate, rather they must only be inclusive of the actual registered voters in each district. This level of accuracy is obtained at no cost to the public because actual voters register to vote and through that registration process ensures their correct inclusion in the voter role. Under this current system, those interested in voting are able to register and vote, and the system is robust to any number of invalid names being included in the voter roles, cheaters have no broadly exploitable way of knowing what names to use when soliciting an absentee vote. No change necessary let’s not create new rules creating rather than solving problems.