Voting is a fundamental right in the United States and it is the responsibility of every state to making voting as accessible as possible. As a veteran, I have personally relied on absentee voting for several elections. The thought that my ballot would be deemed illegitimate and dismissed because of handwriting or the United States Postal Service (USPS) simply missing a postmark is troubling, at best. To look further to the greater community and health safety in our current pandemic context, it is incumbent on the Commonwealth to recognize the coming increase in absentee ballots and decrease the number of policies that eliminate ballots from being counted. The last pandemic prior to SARS-CoV-2 was H1N1 in 2009. While eleven years is a significant period between pandemic events, the next pandemic is inevitable. It is a prudent emergency preparedness mitigation to implement policy, that has little to no consequence to elections in non-emergency environments, that supports safe voting in recognition of the next pandemic event. This action is far from universal vote-by-mail that would significantly improve ballot access, but it is a step in the direction to ensure more Virginian’s votes are counted.