More states are using ballot drop boxes for absentee voters, but the boxes are already drawing skept

Elections officials across the country are accelerating their efforts to install ballot drop boxes, a move they hope will make absentee voting simple and safe for those wary of the mail or fear exposure to the novel coronavirus at polling places.

The efforts come as voters voice concerns about timely delivery of mail ballots. Already, postal workers are reporting days-long backlogs of mail across the country, calling into question whether ballots will arrive at elections offices in time to be counted in November. President Trump has also ramped up attacks on the integrity of mail voting, in a year when more voters than ever are expected to choose that method because of the pandemic.

But the use of these boxes — which often look similar to a mailbox and are typically under video surveillance or guarded — has come under attack in states newly adopting them this year. Some skeptics worry the boxes may not be properly monitored to prevent tampering, or that voters will not know how to use or find them. In the battleground state of Pennsylvania, these drop boxes are now in the center of a Trump campaign lawsuit raising similar concerns.

Some see drop boxes as a safer and more reliable way to cast ballots than the mail. For instance, Michigan elections officials urged absentee voters to use drop boxes rather than the Postal Service after mail delivery backlogs led some to receive their ballot as late as one day before Tuesday’s primary election.





https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/more-states-are-using-ballot-drop-boxes-for-voters-who-dont-trust-the-mail-but-the-boxes-are-already-drawing-skepticism/2020/08/06/4165e7c4-d68a-11ea-930e-d88518c57dcc_story.html