You dont need to check the box scared of COVID, there are other reasons people can choose to vote absentee. No one picks up the phone on election day to check if you were out of the county, working a 10 hour shift, goes to your house to see if you had kids or a parent to take care of at home or have some other reason allowed. States try to limit absentee balloting mosly just to reduce the workload of receiving all that mail but they will not turn away forms submitted and send out 1000 workers to check excuses in those states. If someone wants to vote absentee let them. As you can see it is only a minority of states and many states allow for various excuses.
Actually if someone protests your absentee ballot then they will check for the excuse in a state requiring an excuse. This normally only occurs when one candidate is contesting a close election that is only a few votes apart -- the first thing they demand is a validation and re-tally of all absentee ballots. This being said --- there are enough excuses in many states that you can apply one of them to your family situation without requiring a "I'm scared of COVID" excuse. I'm just making clear that in many states claiming that you are scared of COVID will not be a valid excuse for absentee voting.
The very first one Alabama on that link:- According to guidance issued by the AL Secretary of State, any Alabama resident concerned about COVID-19 may apply for an absentee ballot for the upcoming municipal elections.
Alabama is currently a no excuse absentee ballot state - it is not one of the 17 states requiring an excuse.
No one is going to claim in writing they are scared of COVID when asking for their absentee ballot so you are making up a problem that does not exist. People will choose health reasons or something like that on the check the box. I think you are claiming a fantasy that the state will send out hundreds of people to verify everyone's absentee ballot claim if there is a contested election. A vote is a vote...why woudl you discredit someone's vote who did it by absentee ballot becuase they were healthy enough to go to a poll? That makes no sense. A vote is a vote.
I think he's saying that not allowing for COVID to be a valid excuse in 17 states is bullshit and should be fixed
In contested elections — absentee ballots are always checked first since they are the easiest type of ballot to make an assertion they should not be counted. It is much harder to disqualify a ballot cast at the polls. Take a look at the close Congressional contests in North Carolina recently in the 9th and 3rd Districts - they went after the absentee ballots to overturn the elections.