The fiasco of last week’s presidential primary in Wisconsin further demonstrates the need for mail-in ballots across the nation in the November election.
Voters should not have to risk their health in order to vote. That, however, will be the case if the coronavirus remains a persistent threat by this fall. Even if stay-at-home orders — enacted in most states — have the desired effect of slowing the spread of the coronavirus by this summer, it is possible that a flare-up could occur in the fall.
That could be disastrous for the election. In many states, voters are required to visit the polls, standing in line — often for hours — while trying to retain social distancing. Most other states offer absentee ballots for those who request them, but are ill-prepared for an avalanche of requests that could result if COVID-19 is still raging.
The dangers were on display in Wisconsin. With the state pushing ahead with an election in the middle of a pandemic, voters stood in line — often in close proximity — to exercise their democratic right. The process endangered not only those desiring to vote, but also poll workers. In Milwaukee, a city of about 600,000 residents, only five ballot locations were open. Thousands who requested absentee ballots received them late, and the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that ballots returned after the deadline were invalid, regardless of when they were received.
The disenfranchisement of eligible voters could be viewed as an unfortunate result of an unprecedented situation. In reality, it is a natural extension of an ongoing effort.
In discussing efforts by congressional Democrats to ease voting by mail, President Trump said: “They had things, levels of voting, that if you ever agreed to it, you’d never have a Republican elected in this country again.” Trump also has suggested, without offering any evidence, that voting by mail increases the likelihood of voter fraud. Following the 2016 presidential election, he convened a panel to examine voter fraud; it quietly disbanded months later without issuing any findings.
Lest one think that Trump’s assertions are simply off-the-cuff rambling, as he is wont to do, Georgia’s Republican speaker of the house said, “the president said it best, this will be extremely devastating to Republicans and conservatives in Georgia.”
If making it easier for eligible voters to cast a ballot will be devastating for Republicans, perhaps they should rethink their policies instead of trying to suppress the vote. Voting is a sacrosanct American right and stands as the very foundation of our democracy.
Because of that, Republicans should embrace Democratic efforts in Congress to help all states institute vote-by-mail in time for the November election.
Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, has proposed the Resilient Elections During Quarantines and Natural Disasters Act of 2020, which would provide $500 million in federal funding to help states pay for postage and for scanners needed to process the ballots. The bill would decree that if 25 states have declared an emergency — all 50 states have declared emergencies related to COVID-19 — registered voters in all states would be allowed to request absentee ballots.
Voters in Washington know the benefits of voting by mail; we have used it for two decades, and concerns about voter fraud have been unfounded. Voters in other states should have the opportunity to witness those benefits for themselves, rather than taking their lives in their hands while a pandemic plays havoc with a presidential election.
