ORANGE PARK – Many citizens in Clay County and abroad have relied on mail-in voting to make their voices heard in the political process.

The issue is especially prevalent with the COVID-19 outbreak, making mail-in voting may play a more significant than usual role in this year’s elections, according to Supervisor of Elections Chris Chambless.

Some prefer it; others do not. Perhaps the loudest dissenting voice comes from the highest-ranking American citizen, President Donald Trump.

“Republicans should fight very hard when it comes to statewide mail-in voting. Democrats are clamoring for it. Tremendous potential voter fraud, and for whatever reason, doesn’t work out well for Republicans,” Trump tweeted at the Fox and Friends Twitter account on April 8. He has also since stated that mail-in voting is “horrible. It’s corrupt.”

The president isn’t the only American who feels that way.

Chambless disagrees.

“I think that if things are status quo with regards to the current guidelines for public distancing, then yeah, it could be one of the ways [to continue to regulate public safety],” Chambless said. “I think that it all remains to be seen on what the state is going to recommend with regards to the methods that are available to cast one’s ballot. But regardless of whether we are in a pandemic or just that you appreciate the flexibility of voting by mail as a voting method, it is one that is embraced by many historically.”

Chambless said he casts his ballot by mail. He says that it allows him the time to sit with his wife, discuss the candidates and the issues, and then make their choice in a low-pressure environment as opposed to the voting booth.

According to Business Insider, 35 states allows absentee ballots, and five rely entirely on a mail-in system to hold elections.

There are many myths about mail-in voting. Those harmful myths are a part of the reason that many people are against mail-in or absentee voting.

One of the biggest and most widely held misconceptions is that absentee ballots are only counted if the race being contested is close.

“To be honest, I don’t know [where the myth came from],” said Chambless. “When we release election results, we release them as preliminary first, then as unofficial results, then official results. The Uniform Overseas Civilian Absent Voters Act allows for a federal election, or if a portion of the election has federal offices, then it allows for civilians who reside overseas or for military overseas to have 10 additional days to return your ballots. When do most people pay most of the attention on elections? Maybe that night, or maybe the next day. In the case of these 10-day ballots, those ballots are still being canvassed 10 days after the elections, and those elections, on the whole, lose visibility to the public.” Chambless surmises that between the 10-day window and the reality that those ballots often lack the numbers to sway the vote, people began to assume that they were only counted in close elections.

Within Clay County, according to Chambless, there is a larger than average number of registered voters who live on boats or in RVs and travel the country.

“I think that most people, especially military, especially travelers, this is their only way to vote, so they’re more comfortable with it,” he said.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, he feels that there are many purists of the election process who love the feeling of waiting in line, seeing their neighbors and casting their votes at the polling station.

“It’s a gathering,” Chambless said. “They love to vote on election day.”

Those who are not proponents of voting by mail are also concerned about the integrity of the mail-in ballots. Chambless assures this isn’t an issue.

“Yes, we compare every signature,” he wrote in a letter to the editor where he made efforts to debunk commonly held false narratives. “When we receive a vote by mail ballot, it’s timestamped and checked in. The voter’s information is pulled up, and the signature is compared to what we have on file. In this year’s Presidential primary alone, we checked 12,300 signatures.”

While voters have the right to have an opinion, Chambless said it isn’t responsible to base those opinions on misinformation.

Chambless is doing his best to combat that. Despite claims to the contrary, whether you’re for it or not, mail-in voting is not horrible, or corrupt, he said.