Paul Richardson lives in Yarmouth.

Since 1992, I have never missed a chance to have my voice heard through the ballot box. But, in the last 20 years, I’ve also rarely been home on Election Day. Like many Mainers, my job keeps me on the road, hopping between time zones to make the world a better place. Absentee voting is how my voice makes it back to Yarmouth when I can’t.

That’s why Question 1 on this November’s ballot worries me. On paper it sounds like routine “election integrity.” In practice, it piles new hurdles onto a system that already works, and that thousands of working Mainers, caregivers, students, deployed service members, seniors and people with disabilities rely on to participate.

Consider what Question 1 actually does:
● It cuts two days off the absentee voting window and bans prepaid return postage.
● Limits towns to a single drop box.
● Ends ongoing absentee status for seniors and voters with disabilities.
● It also adds a photo ID requirement even for absentee ballots, triggering an after-the-fact challenged-ballot maze if you don’t have the exact ID handy.

For a hardworking Mainer who has a long work day or is on the road, each added step is another chance for a ballot to miss a flight, or a deadline.

Here’s what the research, not the rhetoric, says:

● Vote-by-mail is a permanent, mainstream part of U.S. elections. The MIT Election Data and Science Lab documents that mail voting has tripled since 2000 and now comprises a large share of ballots nationwide. It’s not a pandemic one-off; it’s modern
administration meeting modern lives.
● Security safeguards are robust and layered. Signature verification, bipartisan processing, strict chain-of-custody and ballot tracking are standard. Independent reviews from nonpartisan experts outline these protections in detail.
● Fraud via mail ballots is vanishingly rare. Large-scale studies consistently find extremely low rates. Even databases assembled to highlight fraud illustrate how isolated cases are and have been criticized for inflating problems.
● The Postal Service delivers. In 2024, USPS delivered at least 99.2 million ballots, with 99.88% reaching officials within a week; in 2022, nearly 99% arrived within three days.
That’s performance most private carriers would envy.
● Mainers embrace absentee voting. Closer to home, Maine voters have embraced absentee voting. 2024 saw the second-highest absentee totals in recent presidential cycles, proof that busy schedules, long commutes and seasonal work don’t have to silence anyone.

So what problem does Question 1 solve in Maine?

If the goal is confidence, we already have strong processes. If the goal is participation, this measure moves backward, shrinking the window, adding paperwork, removing conveniences like prepaid postage and making it harder for small towns to offer accessible options with only one drop box allowed.

For those of us who travel for work or work long hours, absentee voting isn’t “extra.” It’s the only way to meet a civic obligation without choosing between a paycheck and a polling place.

Democracy should fit the lives of the people it serves. Question 1 makes the path narrower, slower and steeper for no clear gain.

This November, I’ll be voting to protect absentee voting, because as a hard working Mainer, my schedule and workload shouldn’t decide whether my voice counts.