“While the existence of COVID-19 and concerns over residents’ health and safety were the primary motivation behind implementing this vote-by-mail alternative,” said Madelyn Hoffman, the Green Party candidate for U.S. Senate whose votes are still being counted, “I believe that this system has its benefits and could be used from this point forward. First, voting-by-mail increases grassroots democracy by increasing the percentage of people who will vote. Having a ballot mailed to your door makes it so much more convenient for each eligible voter to record a vote. Greater voter turnout is something we should all be striving for in the U.S., as our voter participation rate is notoriously low, even during a presidential election year such as 2020. We need to constantly think of ways to improve voter turnout and thus strengthen our anemic democracy.

“In addition, this method of voting makes it better for all parties, including the Green Party of New Jersey and other challengers of the duopoly, because it is easier to vote — ballots can be dropped off at a secure ballot deposit box 24 hours a day, seven days a week and not just on one specified date during the week.

“And unlike electronic voting machines, voting-by-mail allows tracking of the vote of every eligible voter. Remember how many scandals there were with electronic voting machines and reports of votes for one candidate being misdirected and miscounted? Without a paper trail, it was impossible to know if a person’s vote was correctly recorded. In fact, in most cases, this rendered most recounts impossible and useless.

“Lastly, since the Green Party believes in grassroots democracy as one of our 4 pillars, we insist that every vote be counted! All the provisional ballots should be counted, too, regardless of whether those numbers will affect the ultimate outcome of the race. Let’s not stop counting until all the votes are in and each party and candidate knows just how many votes they received.”