Will every vote count and be counted?

OPINION:

Well, folks, this is the year.

2020 will go down in history either as the year that every vote counted and was counted, or the year we royally screwed up.

Many of you are being misguided into thinking that this year is the year of the East Coast Rumblers, the year of Joe Biden vs. Donald Trump.

Don’t be fooled, however, because so very much is at stake.

On Thursday morning, for example, Mayor Muriel Bowser held a press conference to encourage D.C. citizens to vote in the upcoming June presidential primary and special election, and again in the November presidential election, among other issues. But the D.C. Board of Elections blew it.

After following the mayor’s lead, an elections official explained the ins and outs, and the ups and downs about the need for voters to seek and deliver absentee ballots due to the COVID-19 scare.

So, the city wants registered voters to request an absentee ballot, await the arrival of an absentee ballot and deliver an absentee ballot.

But beware: There are electronic glitches already in the electronic voting system.

Android phones and the D.C. voting system can’t “shake” hands, and, even if you’re using an iPhone, voters might not receive proof from the elections board that it has received your request let alone your vote.

It’s like the voting system is social distancing itself — doing the chicken wing-like elbow-to-elbow greeting.

Thursday’s presser proved that yet again the D.C. government isn’t ready for 21st century voting.

In February, it sent voter-registration mailers to voters that were printed with the incorrect date for the presidential primary. The correct date is Tuesday, June 2.

That embarrassment wasn’t the first, though. In 2012, a man who wasn’t then-Attorney General Eric Holder almost got his hands on Mr. Holder’s ballot because of several foul-ups, including the failure of poll workers to ask the man for ID proving he was, in fact, Eric Holder.

(I’ve never been asked to show ID or a voter-registration card at the D.C. polls.)

Which brings up back to another concern — the candidates. Don’t be fooled by the Pete Buttigiegs and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortezes and Elizabeth Warrens, politicos capable of selling snake oil as cures for the coronavirus.

There are two questions, at the very least, that voters must consider before they vote: Who are the candidates and will every vote be counted?

“I Voted” stickers answer neither question.

⦁ Deborah Simmons can be contacted at dsimmons@washingtontimes.com.