A colleague in the elections community sent along this observation, which is pertinent to any state that requires ballots only be postmarked, but not delivered by Election Day.
They are sitting in post offices or they're in postal bags somewhere.
What if somebody, who already knows the Murkowski/Miller race is close, wanted to try and affect the outcome of the election and decided not to deliver a batch of ballots or discarded them?
Allowing timely postmarked ballots adds a security threat to the election when there are ballots out there floating around and elections officials don't even know where they are. It also adds an extra difficult issue of what to do when the postmark is unreadable or is totally missing.
Check your next stack of mail. There are almost always some items in there missing a postmark.
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Paul Gronke Aug 30, 2010
AUGUST 30 UPDATE: I have received a communication suggesting that I am musing about postal workers committing fraud. That was not my intent and I apologize.
My concern here lies with a closely contested election and more than 20,000 ballots (according to Saturday’s Anchorage Daily Times) uncounted and “questioned.”
Imagine if this were a general election seat and control of the Senate were in balance. I realize that requiring ballots to be delivered by Election Day is an inconvenience, particularly in a state like Alaska, but I wonder if the greater good is served by having all ballots in the hands of election officials prior to any announcements of election results.
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