The problem with this approach is happening right now, and has been happening for months:
The problem, that a political appointment by drumpf, currently in charge of the USPS, has actively sabotaged the mail service to slow down mail delivery.
This will guarantee that countless ballots will, by design, be received too late and thus be invalidated.
This is not conspiracy theory, this has been affirmed in court

I think it would be great if all mail-in ballots must be post marked by a date, let’s say October 30th, and received by November 7th, and if not received or if rejected for some reason a provisional ballot can be cast by the voter by November 12th. The voter should have time to correct a voting problem. Overseas ballots received by the 12th. I’m just throwing out dates, it would have to be tweaked for the specific voting year.

What I think is much more important is ALL states should start processing and counting mail-in ballots as they arrive. Waiting for election night is ludicrous and there is no good reason for it. If we allow early voting in person certainly we can be casting mail-in ballots early.

I think the deadlines in all states should be prior to the election. October 30 sounds reasonable to me.

Yes, it would be reasonable to allow three days. It would also be reasonable to make election day the deadline, but require ballot requests to be earlier (some states allow requests on Saturday before a Tuesday election, which is not reasonable).

A problem is the states run elections – it is baked into the Constitution. So there can no be no national solution imposed. Another is that the state elections are conducted by elected officials, some of whom take it as an opportunity to tilt the scales for their parties.

After the upcoming fiasco, perhaps there can be a movement to create best practices and standards. It won’t be enforceable legally but state officials can choose to show good faith by following them or show bad intent by refusing.

@Call_Me_Jay What do you mean not enforceable legally? States have rules, I assume they are laws, regarding when they accept mail-in ballots, when they are counted, if you can correct a signature, etc.

It’s happening right now, in each state, in every municipality.

Not enforceable legally nation-wide. A single standard can not be imposed. States can do what they want.

It is determined by the states and each state has made its own determination for when the ballot must be postmarked by and an ending date for when it must be received by to be counted. This is a bogus issue.

I think that there should be a deadline.
However. The biggest variable should be the ability of the government to process the votes.
I feel that it’s not much different from a construction job.
If you hire a company to roof your house, for example, they need to complete the job.
If the company should complete the project in 2–3 days, but they aren’t done by day 3, should they be allowed to walk away? Nope. They have to complete the task. Or then, you won’t have a complete roof.
The US government is responsible for the democratic process. This includes mail in votes….
If it takes longer to get it done, due to circumstances, so be it.

But. The burden of any circumstances, shouldn’t be placed on the voters… They are going through rough times too.

A lot of voters might be homeless, or without power, or water, by November…

In large part, because of the mishandling of the pandemic, by the government. So. It seems rather unfair to expect that they would have to take up the slack of their government….

In short. No… There shouldn’t be a problem with mail in votes. If the government expects problems with a larger amount of them, due to the pandemic, they should be the ones that make adjustments to accommodate the issues….

I don’t want to hear any excuses.
We have the power to make it happen…

Postmarked by Election day is a reasonable solution.

@ragingloli Let me ask you this: if a first class letter cannot make it from one point in California to another in THREE DAYS, we should quickly turn over the damn post office to private enterprise. I bet you that costs will drop and delivery times will improve.

@JLeslie Hi there. Good to see you again. I agree with the approximate time frames you have proposed. The intent of my question is that it makes zero sense to allow the same seventeen days for a piece of mail from Timbuktoo as from Sacramento. And we better know where each mail-in ballot is coming from.

@chyna If you make the deadline Oct 30, you would require voting to be done and the ballot mailed a week or more BEFORE the election. That may cause some people to lose their cool. I think few minds get changed during the final 7–10 days. So I would be ok with that.

@Call_Me_Jay Awesome answer – I agree with all your points.

@kritiper I assume you mean legal challenges. Yes they are happening all over. But I expect the legal battle to get more intense in closely contested states.

@janbb Is there any space next to you where I could also bury my head in the sand?

@MrGrimm888 I agree that we have to solve the “problem” as a society. We have to come up with fair rules as to who should receive a mail-in ballot, and the guidelines for filling it out and delivering it to the right place by a certain date. I like @Call_Me_Jay‘s suggestion of “best practices and standards”. While this alone will not stop the lawsuits, the onus will have to be on the plaintiff to prove where a state’s proposed rules do not meet the best practices and standards.

@Caravanfan I believe the postmark date is a requirement in all states. But, in addition to that, the states have determined how long the post office is allowed to deliver a properly and timely mailed ballot.

@Dutchess_III I hope somebody stops you on Oct 10, 11, 12…

Mailed mine today.

@chyna Good for you. I have not even received mine yet.

@crazyguy No, I didn’t mean the legal challenges. Our state is working diligently to make sure all is in order for election day mail-in ballots. I made my request for one several months ago after the onset of COVID-19.

@crazyguy Not all mail-in are postmarked. If they are dropped off at polling stations or special ballot boxes they don’t go through USPS. Some states consider the ballot valid as long as it is postmarked on or before Election Day. My state doesn’t care about the postmark, it has to arrive by Election Day, the only exception is overseas citizens it has to be signed by Election Day and can arrive up to 14 days after the election.

A clear problem with requiring any ballots to be received by a certain date, especially in a short time frame, is that the voter doesn’t control that.

Problems with different dates for mailing requirements based on location include that it’s too complicated.

I think the solution to such problems is to relax and allow the election to take as long as it takes.

You might want to study how elections have worked in the states that have already been doing mail-in voting for years. I think you’ll find they’ve been doing pretty well without any such measures being needed.

In practice, you give people their ballots quite a few days before the vote, many people tend to vote a bit early, and you get plenty of ballots in by election day and they tend to allow the winner to be pretty clear, soon enough.

@crazyguy
It is certainly not going to become cheaper, but more expensive.
USPS is legally required to deliver mail to everyone, no matter how far off in the wasteland they live, at a flat rate.
Private delivery companies like fedex or ups, if they deliver to remote areas, add on ridiculous surcharges to make up for the additional expense.
Often times, they do not deliver to remote areas at all, and subcontract the USPS for “last mile delivery”, precisely because they are cheaper.

So, you privatise the USPS, and it will become a lot more expensive, and rural areas are at high risk from being completely cut off the system.

@Zaku The voter has the following means of controlling his ballot:

1. S/he can vote earlier than the deadline.
2. S/he can track the ballot. See https://www.pcmag.com/how-to/how-to-track-your-absentee-ballot-by-state for details.

If a voter comes to a conclusion his/her ballot will not make it to the registrar on time, s/he can contact the registrar.

@ragingloli It is true that delivering mail to/from remote places costs the post office more and that a privatized post office may charge extra for it. However, it is possible to require that the post office service be maintained as is. I see nothing wrong with charging more. In fact, why do we even need snail mail any more?

We need snail mail because I still mail my bills. I don’t pay them on the internet.
The pre paid envelope I received to mail my ballot in was 1.20.

“The voter has the following means of controlling his ballot:

1. S/he can vote earlier than the deadline.
2. S/he can track the ballot. See https://www.pcmag.com/how-to/how-to-track-your-absentee-ballot-by-state for details.

If a voter comes to a conclusion his/her ballot will not make it to the registrar on time, s/he can contact the registrar.”
– Yes, the voter can. Great.
– The point I was trying to make was that their vote should not be invalidated based on anything other than the date posted, because that’s simple, sufficient, and how it has been done for a very long time.

@Zaku Are you saying that a ballot should not be invalidated no matter when it is received?

Read what he wrote again @crazyguy ”…should not be invalidated based on anything other than the date posted, because that’s simple…”

@Dutchess_III Thanks for your clarification. I disagree with what I thought he meant. What do you do with ballots postmarked on or before November 3, but, for some reason, not received until December 1?

How could it take a month to get where it needs to go?

@Dutchess_III My question, precisely!

I’m just voting in person.

I’m just voting in person.

Me, too. I’m in Wisconsin now, so Ground Zero for shenanigans.

Pro tip: Don’t request a mail-in ballot “just in case”. I did that in California one year, and when I showed up at the polls, I could not vote without turning in my mail ballot. Which I had thrown away.

They let me cast a provisional ballot. They don’t bother counting them unless some race is close enough to be changed by provisional votes.

@Dutchess_III I plan to vote by mail. However, this year I will track my ballot.

@Call_Me_Jay Not counting your ballot in California made no difference to any of the races you voted on.