When most things are canceled because of COVID-19, they can either be resumed once the pandemic is over or, in the case of annual events, be picked up the following year. However, there is one thing that cannot be canceled because it has permanent and far-reaching consequences for years to come.

These are elections.

With having both the need for holding elections and slowing the spread of COVID-19, there is an obvious problem. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi proposes we solve this problem by funding mail-in voting. Instead of going to a voting center and voting in person, you would receive a ballot in the mail, fill it out and mail it back.

Although this would prevent person-to-person transmission of the virus via voting, it would open the door for more voter fraud, as noted by President Donald Trump.

First, it is essential to address if there are any biases from either President Trump or House Speaker Pelosi toward the issue. Interestingly enough, there are not.

According to University of Florida professor Michael McDonald, who tracks balloting, Republicans would be more likely to vote by mail than Democrats. However, as stated earlier, Democrats are for the mail-in voting, and Republicans are against it. So although Republicans would gain from mail-in voting, Trump is against it. And while Democrats are less likely to vote by mail, Pelosi is for it.

Now we need to ask ourselves, does this method of voting work typically?

The answer is no. The risk of fraud is too great, as shown in a North Carolina election where a candidate’s campaign from all the way back in a 2018 election was found guilty of financing voter-fraud. If there has been voter fraud before in a normal world, then one affected by COVID-19 will still have a similar problem.

Furthermore, Gwinnett County in Georgia experienced chaos when residents attempted to use mail-in voting because of having a large population that does not speak English, which again indicates that the system does not work.

If something doesn’t work well in normal times, it’s not the answer in a crisis. The solution to the problems of the 2020 elections will have to be to take precautions in keeping voter booths and voting centers as clean as possible. So rather than devoting funding toward providing more mail-in voting, Congress should devote funding toward providing resources to voting centers so that they can keep things safe for voters and administrators.

Joshua Bowen is a senior in homeschool. Email him at joshuabbowen24@gmail.com.