At Home Voting: The Method and the Madness

Amber McReynolds joins host T.J. O’Hara on Deconstructed to discuss “at home” voting. Ms. McReynolds is the CEO of the National Vote at Home Institute, co-author of the book When Women Vote, and an expert on election policy and administration. She is also the former Director of Elections for Denver, Colorado, where she transformed the Elections Division into a national and international award-winning office. In addition, Ms. McReynolds was recognized by Governing Magazine as a 2018 Top Public Official of the Year for her transformational work to improve the voting experience.

There is a fair amount of confusion and controversy surrounding the proliferation of mail-in ballots to combat the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. Ms. McReynolds does a deep dive into the security of “at home” voting, a phrase that more appropriately describes the process than the more colloquial “mail-in” terminology. In fact, the majority of purported “mail-in” votes are never actually returned by mail.

Ms. McReynolds also addresses how the chain-of-custody works within the context of “at home” voting and what steps and technologies are used to ensure the integrity of the vote. She explains how ballot tracking and signature verification works and why we should not fear the “at home” voting process.

Amber and T.J. also discuss the social challenges. Is foreign interference a real concern? Is Party interference a greater threat (i.e., through ballot harvesting, etc.)?  What about the United States Post Office? Is the Administration tampering with it to impede the election? And finally, with the early voting “schedule creep” we are witnessing, how “early” is too early?

Find out the answers to all these questions and more when you listen to At Home Voting: The Method and the Madness.