The one time I tried to vote in a national election with an absentee ballot I went to the post office on election day and was scandalized when the postal worker behind the counter refused to sign the envelope. I'm pretty sure the instructions actually mentioned getting a postal worker to sign. There was hardly anyone else around so he had not excuse as to being busy. But I had to wait for someone else to show up to mail a package to sign off for me. And it shook my faith in anything other than the good old voting booth in my own district.

This was several administrations ago so I'm not blaming the current occupant. Just saying that the problem has been around for a while.

My municipality has been doing local elections via mail and either postal delivery or ballot boxes placed in common collection areas such as high school parking lots. It has worked well, been economical and efficient over the past few years.