Absentee voting is mail-in voting that requires an excuse

Come one, come all, to the grand opening of the 2020 General Election Absentee Request Portal!

The Secretary of State debuts the online application portal today, and voters can use it to request an absentee ballot from now until Oct. 28. Unlike the primary, all registered voters will not receive an application for an absentee ballot in the mail. Instead, voters will have to request and fill out an application, which can be done online, over the phone or via email.

For those with internet access, we highly recommend using the new online portal. This will send your request directly to your county clerk, hopefully expediting the process. You can use this link to access the portal: https://sites.omniballot.us/54/absentee/app/home.

For people who can’t use the online portal, there is the option to call, fax or email your county clerk’s office. In Monongalia County, you can call 304-291-7230; fax 304-291-7233; or email clerk@monongaliacountyclerk.com to request an application for an absentee ballot.

Nationally, there has been some misleading rhetoric surrounding absentee vs. mail-in voting. Officials in high offices —like the president — have claimed absentee is safe but mail-in is rife with fraud. Here’s the thing: The only real difference between absentee and mail-in voting is that absentee requires an excuse to use it. That’s it. FactCheck.org cites the director of the Elections Project at the Bipartisan Policy Center, who said, “while the verification process for mail-in ballots can vary by state, the states do not treat absentee and mail-in ballots any differently.”

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 34 states plus the District of Columbia offer “no excuse” absentee voting, whereas West Virginia is one of 16 states that require an excuse to vote absentee. In many of the “no excuse” states, absentee voting is just called mail-in voting. They don’t make a distinction, because “mail-in” and “absentee” are virtually the same.

In West Virginia, absentee-eligible voters must provide a reason they can’t go to the polls on Election Day. For 2020, the excuse “illness, injury or other medical reason” has been expanded to include concerns about COVID-19.

We’ve already had our debates with Secretary Warner about why registered voters can’t just be mailed their ballots (five states do so successfully every year), and Warner has cited West Virginia State Code §3-3-2b as the reason the state can’t automatically send out ballots. This section of code requires voters to submit an application for their absentee ballot. That’s fine. But the same section of code also says “[t]he completed application is to be on a form prescribed by the Secretary of State and is to contain … the authorized reason, if any, for which the absentee ballot is requested …”

Here’s our proposal for future elections, since absentee voting has been so successful this year: If we can’t change the state code to skip the application process, then let’s alter the “authorized reason” to “because I want to” and make West Virginia a no-excuse mail-in voting state.