Pulaski County will not be offering drop boxes as a way to return absentee ballots. That was the decision made by the county election board Wednesday.
Clerk JoLynn Behny said she’s had several residents ask about the possibility of placing drop boxes at early voting locations. She said that while she appreciated the suggestion, she felt the security risk of having ballots sitting in multiple locations was simply too high. Instead, voters who request a ballot by mail are being asked to either mail it back or hand it in at the Clerk’s Office in the courthouse.
Board members also tried to calm residents’ fears about mailing their ballots. Behny noted that there’s an extensive tracking process in place, with requests being checked against the Statewide Voter Registration System multiple times. “When the ballot comes back, the ballot is then checked into SVRS,” Behny explained. “The signatures are verified. It’s checked into the system, and it shows that that person has voted. That’s supposed to be the safeguard to keep somebody from voting by mail and then coming in and voting at the polls.”
Election Board Chair Patty Sullivan also refuted the idea that postal workers could somehow see how residents vote and throw out their ballots. She stressed that there’s no party affiliation listed on the outside of the return envelope. “When you return that, there’s no way of knowing that that person is a Republican or Democrat,” Sullivan said. “There’s no R. There’s no D.”
As it stands, voters once again have to have a specific reason to be allowed to vote by mail. But Behny pointed out that there are a number of reasons available, and some of them, like being confined or caring for someone who’s confined, are broad and open to some interpretation during the pandemic.
