2020 is an election year. Because of the China virus, Americans start thinking vote by mail to avoid physical contact. But is voting by mail a wise thing to do?
The WSJ OpEd article "Patriots Vote in Person" written by Holman W. Jenkins, Jr, a member of the editorial board of The Wall Street Journal, points out that:
In a normal election, 0.01% of in-person ballots are disqualified, and about 100 times as many—or 1%—of mail-in ballots.
I did my study on the election data in NC. I pulled the public available 2016 absentee election data in NC from the North Carolina State Board of Elections.
The data shows that the rejected rate of 2016 early voting in person is 0.04%.
However, the rejected rate of 2016 absentee ballot by mail is 13.93%
The Python notebook is published in my Github.
The Wise Way to Vote
The answer is obvious: go vote in person to make your vote counts.
In the 2016 presidential election, the winning margin in Wisconsin is <1%. With such a high rejected rate of voting by mail, any American voters should be well informed on how to improve their chances that let their voices be heard.