In our town’s municipal election, I voted by email, from 4,000 miles away. It was simple, and I have no fear that my vote was discarded, intercepted or altered in any way.
Alaska trails the rest of the nation in many areas – social advances, public education, and plumbing to name only a few – but the Last Frontier figured out long-distance voting decades ago.
Alaskans tend to be a transient bunch. Here in the summer to fish. Off to Hawaii in winter to play. Down to the Lower 48 to see family whenever. Elections don’t neatly fit into our schedules. Moreover, great distances sometimes separate Alaskans and their voting places. As they often must, Alaskans adapt.
Alaska offers by-mail voting, absentee by-mail voting, absentee in-person voting, voting by fax, by email, and maybe even by dogsled, as far as I know. This is generally how it works: If you vote, your name is on a list of eligible, registered voters. The government sends you a ballot. You return it, completed. On receipt of your ballot at the elections office, an election official makes a mark, indicating you have cast your ballot. Your vote is added to others .
It’s not magic or rocket science.
Because I knew I’d likely be in Philadelphia for our municipal election, I asked our borough (county) clerk to email me options for casting my ballot. She told me the easiest method would probably be by email, though she couldn’t insure I’d have complete secrecy, as electronically there’s still no way to conceal a ballot in an envelope.
No worries. Anyone who remotely knows me could guess my ballot choices. For those who don’t know me, who cares how I vote?
After I emailed a request, the clerk emailed me two documents: One was a municipal ballot. The other was a certification, to be signed by two witnesses or a notary public, witnessing my signature on a statement that I was a Haines Borough resident and that I wasn’t voting elsewhere.
I completed the ballot and the certification and emailed them to the clerk, who confirmed via email that my ballot was received and would be tallied.
Presto.
What about this process is fraudulent, “unsolicited” as President Trump might say, or in any other way corrupt?
The clerk is an election official. Receiving and tallying ballots is part of her job. Her job is what pays for her groceries. What incentive would she have to change or disregard my emailed ballot? Why would I not trust her to do her job, particularly the part of her job that is the foundation of our democratic form of government?
Plus, I know the clerk. I’ve sat and had long conversations with her. I believe her to be a virtuous person. I trust her with my ballot
This is perhaps the sticking point. Voting, and democratic rule in general, rests on trust, a belief that we and others around us will act honestly and honorably. Most people are trustworthy. To keep afloat a system of government in which each of us plays an equal part, we must assume the best about each other.
Once we lose that fundamental trust in each other, it doesn’t matter how we vote. No voting system will be safe from doubt and second-guessing, and our democratic system of governing ourselves will be in jeopardy.