Glen Stubbe/Star Tribune via AP
At an early voting center in Minneapolis in January
As the number of confirmed coronavirus cases rises, more states declare a “state of emergency,” and stocks plummet with every new announcement, the election, nonetheless, must go on. Some states’ election procedures are better equipped for “non-traditional” voting than others, with non-excuse vote-by-mail options, automatic voter registration, and expanding language access. But as primary season continues—and possibly into the general election this fall—some states will be adding the coronavirus to the already-onerous obstacle course to the polls.
Twenty-seven states, Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia are still yet to hold their primaries—including such voter suppression hot spots as Florida and Georgia, where voters have been purged from the rolls and must surmount voter ID laws. Also upcoming are Louisiana, West Virginia, Kentucky, and Indiana, which don’t have no-excuse absentee voting. To be eligible to mail in a ballot in those states, you have to qualify for their pre-approved excuses for not being able to show up on Election Day.
Louisiana is the first state that has suggested postponing its primary, for both the presidential primary election as well as races for state offices. Secretary of State Kyle Ardoin sent this request to the governor on Friday, with a new proposed presidential primary moving to June 20 instead of April 4.
“While hurricanes, floods, and tornadoes are at the forefront of all Louisianans minds, the threat we face from the COV-19 virus is an unprecedented threat and unlike any we have faced,” Ardoin said, in a press conference.
On Wednesday, just before the Capitol closed its halls to visitors and DC declared a state of emergency, Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) proposed a bill for nationwide voting by mail. The Resilient Elections During Quarantines and Natural Disasters Act of 2020 would allocate $500 million to support the choice to vote-by-mail or an in-person ballot drop off during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“No voter should have to choose between exercising their constitutional right and putting their health at risk,” Wyden said in a statement. “When disaster strikes, the safest route for seniors, individuals with compromised immune systems, or other at-risk populations is to provide every voter with a paper ballot they can return by mail or drop-off site. This is a nonpartisan, common-sense solution to the very real threat is looming this November.”
Oregonians have been voting by mail since 2000, and it’s increasing in popularity nationally. About 25 percent of all Americans voted by mail in 2018, according to The Washington Post.
All states have some form of mail-in voting, but the access is not universal. Like Oregon, California has a similar robust vote-by-mail system. In Washington state, almost all voting is conducted by mail. And in Colorado and Arizona, more than 50 percent of the ballots cast in recent elections were by mail
However, in a state like South Carolina, where voters have to have a pre-approved excuse, there are also many technical obstacles to sending in a ballot, ranging from knowing to remove certain pieces of paper from the envelopes and getting a witness signature. In 2018, more than 500 absentee ballots were not counted in South Carolina because of one of these technicalities. Worse yet, such voters are often not notified that their ballots were not counted.
Wyden has long been a champion of vote by mail in the Senate, working to expand the system that works so well in his state to the rest of the United States. Last January, he introduced the Vote By Mail Act of 2019, garnering 15 co-sponsors. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has never brought the bill to the floor for a vote.
Wyden argues that voting by mail helps fight suppression, saves money, and makes voting more accessible when it is implemented together with information on the procedure and without technical obstacles to toss “unfit” ballots into a dustbin. Currently, however, America’s voting rules differ not just across state lines but across county lines as well. That hardly serves democracy well—least of all, in a time of pandemic.
