The 2022 primaries are heating up, with voters in two states casting ballots tomorrow to select nominees for Congress as well as state and local offices.
The most prominent races in Nebraska are a pair of GOP nominating contests, for governor and the House seat vacated by a lawmaker forced to resign after being convicted for lying to authorities about illegal campaign contributions. And in West Virginia, two Republican incumbents are facing off after the state lost a U.S. House seat following the 2020 census. West Virginia allows unaffiliated voters to participate in the primary. Legislative elections in Nebraska are nonpartisan, with the top two finishers advancing to the general election.
Since 2019, following the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic and amid partisan fighting over administration of the 2020 presidential election, many states have been making changes to their election systems. In some cases, legislatures made it easier to vote whereas others tightened the rules. So with key races on the ballot, let’s review the changes made in the Cornhusker and Mountain states, both of which are controlled by Republicans.
Nebraska
While the state has made a number of minor changes in recent years, the biggest alteration occurred in two bills.
First, in 2020, Nebraska enacted a bill that sets new rules for pollwatchers, allows hand-delivery of ballots to the county clerk and requires at least one 24-hour drop box to be placed in each county at least 10 days before an election and limits the sharing of voter lists received through public records requests.
And in April 2022, the governor signed a wide-ranging election reform bill. Its provisions include:
- Allowing emergency responders to request absentee ballots when serving outside their country of residence.
- Making it easier for National Guard members to apply for a mail-in ballot.
- Setting new security standards for ballot drop boxes, requiring the boxes to be accessible until the deadline for returning ballots, and sets electioneering boundaries around drop boxes.
- Banning the use of private funds for election administration.
- Banning foreign nationals from funding ballot initiatives.
- Alternatives for providing signatures for voters with disabilities to provide.
West Virginia
For the past four years, lawmakers have been making changes that make it easier for people to vote, although some recent actions tighten the rules.
In 2019, the state made it easier for people with disabilities, illnesses or injuries to vote by absentee ballot. The following year, with the country facing the height of the pandemic, lawmakers allowed anyone to vote by mail although that permission did not extend beyond the 2020 election.
Last year, military and overseas voters as well as people with disabilities were granted additional options for returning their ballots.
The state enacted a number of election-related bills in 2022.
- First responders assigned outside their home counties may vote by electronic absentee ballot.
- Local officials have more flexibility in hiring election workers.
- Election officials may not accept private funding.
- The list of election crimes includes newly defined misdemeanors and felonies.
U.S. President Donald Trump boards Air Force One on August 14, 2026 at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland. Trump is traveling to Long Island to tour law enforcement facilities in Nassau County and rally support for local Republican candidates ahead of the upcoming midterm elections
Travel Far Enough, You Meet Yourself
Is it possible that our President has simply not traveled enough?
Born and raised in Queens and attending Fordham University in the Bronx, Donald Trump has no record of traveling outside New York until he was over 20, when he transferred to a college in the neighboring state of Pennsylvania. Were his formative years amiss, then, in his learning about other places and other people?
Is his view akin to the famous New Yorker cover by Saul Steinberg, an illustration of the United States with New York City as the epicenter of the country and the Hudson River the border of the known world? We can now at least add Washington, D.C., and Mar-a-Lago to the map of “the realm.”
Our President has now traveled some, but what we recommend is another kind of travel. Not a state-sponsored trip or a venture to scout locations for future Trump Towers. This would be a genuine travel experience, enriching and eye-opening, showcasing other cultures and ways of living.
It will extend far beyond viewing military parades, hobnobbing with such “understanding” world leaders as Kim Jong Un, or taking tea with the King.
WHERE, then, should the President go? As Elon Musk’s Starship spacecraft is not yet ready to take passengers to Mars, perhaps he could explore our own vast country?
Maybe he could travel to “flyover country,” the farming states, where his ying-yanging tariffs and trade restrictions have played havoc with rural economies. Or possibly to California, number one in homeless U. S. citizens, and while there, regale homeless veterans (approximately 32,500 nationwide) with tales of his brave exploits invading and bombing foreign countries.
Or he might tour the Great Lakes, and rename the other four?
WHEN should he go? This will be tough, as he is very busy building his ballroom and renaming bodies of water.
How about a trip in early November, around the midterm elections? Despite the long-discredited accusation of widespread voter fraud, it would be reassuring to know he might be so caught up divvying out ladles of soup in a soup kitchen somewhere that he wouldn’t remember to deploy the military for “election security.”
HOW will he travel? He should definitely not take his Qatari-donated, newly renovated 747, especially after last time, when he had to be smuggled off clandestinely in a catering truck. It’s unlikely any traveling companions, like the Secretary of State or of the Treasury, are going to fall for the ruse a second time. Besides, we may need those people. No more decoys!
Perhaps the President could fly commercially, although this likely would expose him to undue suffering. Without gold bathroom fixtures and maple wood floors, the trip will be no “Luxury Experience.” If only he still had his “Trump Shuttle,” bought with a massive loan he later defaulted on, saying then, “I’m smart. I got out at a good time.”
Considering the potential pitfalls, maybe it’s best the President travel incognito, disguised perhaps as an elderly woman wearing a lot of bronzer.
Wherever, whenever, however: our President needs a vacation.
Moreover, we need a vacation from him.
If the President refuses our travel suggestions, here’s another idea:
Let’s get him a pet! He has never owned a pet. As we know with our children, pets teach essential life lessons: compassion and empathy; they instill a sense of responsibility. There is a well-established connection between those who can care for a pet and those who can care for people.
So, which pet should we choose? A puppy? A kitten? A boa constrictor?
Imagine, the President may even decide he likes having a pet. After all, what is more obedient than a well-trained dog, besides possibly the Cabinet? And what is more docile than a sweet kitten, other than plausibly the Supreme Court?
The President may even become more mellow with a pet afoot and less likely to slap tariffs on our allies, or attempt to annex our neighbors, or bully our Congress. (Realizing, of course, a bully requires active participation from the bullied to maintain his status.)
Maybe we should do both: get the President a pet and devise a travel plan for him. (Do you think we could possibly convince him to leave his phone at home?)
Let’s go for it! After all:
Travel far enough, you meet yourself. (David Mitchell)
And for our President, that would likely be the most profound discovery of all.
Amy Lockard is an Iowa resident who regularly contributes to regional newspapers and periodicals. She is working on the second of a four-book fictional series based on Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice."