Bridgewater, Va. – With COVID-19 cases continuing to spike throughout the United States, many states and voters have turned to mail-in ballots as a safer alternative to standing in line at a polling place. 

While concerns for public health drove many states’ decision to expand mail-in voting, some members of the Bridgewater College Republican Club are concerned about the potential for fraud and rejected ballots. 

While the rate of voter fraud in the United States is somewhere between 0.00004% and 0.00009% according to a 2017 study by the Brennan Center for Justice, Vice Chair of the BC Republicans Hunter Berkey is concerned that there may be a “greater risk” of many voters’ ballots being thrown out. 

In any election with mail-in ballots, some ballots are inevitably thrown out due to missing witness signatures or being mailed in an unofficial envelope. If half of all votes are cast with mail-in ballots this year and rates of ballots being rejected remain the same, more than 1 million ballots could be thrown out in this year’s election.

In order to ensure their vote is counted, Berkey encourages anyone who can vote in person in the upcoming election to do so. The club also reminds voters to carefully follow the instructions enclosed in the ballot envelope and put the ballot back in the mail as soon as possible.