Restrict eligibility for vote by mail

Vote by mail, more correctly known as “absentee voting,” was originally adopted in the U.S. during the Civil War. Both Union and Confederate troops were enabled to cast ballots that would then be counted back home.

Absentee voting did not become a significant issue until World War II. In 1942 and again in 1944, the Congress passed absentee voting laws related to overseas military personnel. The effectiveness of these laws was muted by the state's rights controversy. We are again involved in a controversy with respect to the issue of absentee voting, which is also being referred to as “voting by mail.”

The Constitution of the United States (at Article I, Section 4) provides for the election of the members of both houses of Congress. Each state legislature is enabled, in that same section, to prescribe the time, place and manner of electing its U.S. Senators. It is worthy of note, however, that the same section provides for the U.S. Congress to “… at any time by law make or alter such [state] Regulations, except as to the place of chusing [sic] Senators.”

The right to vote for candidates for U.S. Congress and president is implied, but clear, in the U.S. Constitution and Amendments. Thus, it is necessary to verify the citizenship of voters participating in federal elections. Such verification is challenging, even in the creation of voter rolls and matching persons with those records at polls. The challenge is significantly increased with voting by mail.

It is my opinion that the U.S. restriction of eligibility for voting by mail for federal offices should adopted. By restricting absentee voting for federal offices to only those known to be citizens and who are unable to vote at a physical polling site, would not infringe on those states who wished to extend vote by mail to their citizenry.

Now, more than ever before, the citizens of this great American nation need to get informed, pray [regardless of their faith system], and get to the polls where they can make their positions known!

Bill Medcalf

Lake Zurich