The head of elections in Cook County says mail-in voting will go on as scheduled for the November election, despite President Trump’s executive order and attempts to spread distrust about mail-in voting.
“It’s a very convenient option. The president votes by mail,” says Cook County Clerk Monica Gordon, who was talking to WBBM Newsradio from in front of the Lincoln Memorial where the March on Washington Defend the Vote Rally was taking place today.
Gordon says she’s not worried the president will be able to disrupt the mail-in voting system for November. She says mail-in voting is safe.
“Mostly of what I’m worried about, I’ll be honest with you, is the confusion, the rhetoric, the disinformation, the misinformation which I always say is the biggest threat to our democracy,” she says.
Gordon says there are approximately 172-thousand suburban Cook County voters who have indicated they want mail-in ballots sent to them for every election.
She expects at least another 25-thousand voters to request them before the October 29th deadline.
Clerk Gordon says there are ways to ensure your ballot gets to election officials in time to be counted. “Just because of the procedure changes with the USPS, I would either take that ballot to one of the 56 early-voting locations or I would take it to your post office and have them postmark it on the spot. But, I would say, if you vote by mail, vote early.”
Even the Postal Service website suggests you ask at the post office to have your ballot hand-postmarked because postmarks may not always be put on mail-in ballots on the day your put them in a mailbox.
“We’re in unprecedented times. We have to be vigilant, we have to be careful and we just have to be pro-active, not just reactive. But, vote-by-mail is safe,” according to Cook County Clerk Monica Gordon.
