Spark voter turnout via March Madness appeal

While I appreciate Mr. Steven Buechel’s March 26 letter under the headline “Another sign of election corruption,” and acknowledge his frustration may be shared by many, I’m afraid his suggested solution may no longer work. Eliminating the “convenience” of “mail-in ballot nonsense” in favor of voting in person on Election Day only would be as successful as convincing the genie to return to the bottle after the granting of three wishes.

However, a compromise may do the trick and infuse interest in the voting process.

Instead of eliminating the mail-in ballot option, just backdate the deadline for the Board of Elections to receive your ballot by two weeks before Election Day. Note: The deadline does not mean you mail in the ballot two weeks prior to Election Day; officials must have your completed ballot in their hands no later than two weeks before Election Day. This means you’ll likely have to mail completed ballots at least four weeks out.

Election officials then can spend the two weeks between the “Mail-In Voting Day” and in-person “Election Day” counting all of the mail-in ballots and providing those tallies periodically to the media so as to motivate the rest of the public to vote in person on Election Day. Why might this motivation happen? Once the voting public sees the mail-in voting tally “scores” of candidates via media reports on Election Day, then they likely will be more motivated to support their candidates by adding to his or her mail-in tally.

This way we return to winners being announced anytime between the closing of polling stations on Election Day and the fresh news cycle the following morning. It’s not rocket science. But it does alleviate some of the madness.

Rick Dana Barlow

Schaumburg