I would agree something needs to be done, probably the voter ID stuff that has been mentioned among other things. Not least to restore faith within the system. I do think the explanation of how the votes shifted was pretty good. As for mail in ballots specifically being unsafe, may want to take a look at this: https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/mail-ballot-security-features-primer
I disagree with their conclusions, but in some ways I feel like California and other states’ voting more generally is less safe than that, given some of the problems listed earlier. So in a way I feel like it was just an awakening of the public consciousness, rather than a real change in voting security.
That Brennan center report on the face of it seems reasonable regarding mail ballots - in prior years when it was not widespread like it was in 2020 because of the coof. But, I'll just quote Frenchy from Goodfellas to illustrate how it was typically treated in 2020. "It's totally, totally untraceable... Security? You're looking at it. It's a joke. I'm the midnight-to-eight man."
The people who are counting the ballots can't be trusted. The people who are managing the polling places can't be trusted. When you don't trust the people operating the system, you can't trust the system. When institutions that generations of Americans grew up believing were unimpeachable turn out to be infested with political hacks looking to line their own pockets or perform favors for crooks in exchange for their own benefit, those institutions no longer can be trusted.
I find it weird your polling places don't have representatives of all political parties in the ballot, that they don't count AND publish the count of the ballots, that they send the ballots to be counted elsewhere, that a candidate can't ask for an audit.
In México the polling places DO have representatives of the parties (unless they choose not to send any), the ballots ARE counted there under the supervision of the representatives and the results are posted outside the polling place, the counting acts HAVE TO have the signatures of the representatives. ballots are then SEALED and sent with the count somewhere else, but they aren't counted AGAIN, unless there's discrepancies or a complaint from one of the parties. And there's chain of custody that has to be mantained.
One more thing, just around my home there's usually 3 polling places in walking distance, and we need to know which one we have to vote in, you usually find a very short line of about 10-20 people tops. Enough ballots are sent to each polling station for the number of people that can vote there with some to spare for people that get to vote there for some reason (not for the whole thicket and only in some cases) without being asigned to it.
Our electoral lists ARE purged constantly, we HAVE a "free" voting ID with photo, address, fingerprint, places to punch that you voted that time and Q Code.
When you vote you HAVE TO show your ID, they compare it to the lists (they have your name and a photo of your ID on it), punch it, ink your thumb. You CAN'T vote twice because of that, dead people AREN'T in the lists, you HAVE TO be: a citizen, live in electoral district, AND fulfill your DUTY to have your documents in order to get to vote.
You guys have a Third World Banana Republic Shithole electoral system. And I find it weird that ANY citizen would be against reforming it, and that they would vote for a party that's against reforming it regardless of if they won or not.
Edited to add:The people maning the polling places? They are ordinary citizens who get "ellected" by chance from the same electoral lists of the district, and they are different every time.
To corrupt them you need to corrupt LOTS of people in a lot of places AND you also need to buy the representatives of the political parties.