I have been voting by mail for the last 12 years. It has always been a simple process. But this year's experience with vote-by-mail is far more difficult than it used to be. In some counties, half of the applications are being rejected because of identity problems that don't appear to be the fault of the applicants as much as the fault of inadequate or inaccurate databases available to election clerks and confusing application forms.
After my experience with completing a vote-by-mail application under the new law adopted last year, I realized that the form is crowded with new requirements that make it easy to make mistakes. There is no good reason to make it more difficult to vote for those of us over 65 and the few others who qualify for voting by mail.
Because I have been reading articles about the new unnecessary roadblocks to voting enacted by the last Republican-controlled Legislature, I looked at the vote-by-mail form again. When I had completed it a few days ago and mailed it in, I did not put my driver license number or the last four digits of my Social Security number on the application form, one of which is now required.
