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All six states require an excuse for voting by mail, which could produce lines at the polls similar to Wisconsin's this month.
The 6 toughest states for voting during the pandemic
Apr 29 2020
The coronavirus has forced a fundamental reassessment of how best to allow citizens to both stay safe and carry out their most important civic responsibility — voting.
Almost half the states have already eased restrictions that would make it tougher to cast a ballot during the pandemic, and more may do so soon. But at the same time, six states now stand out as having the most restrictive voting rules in the country. And those hurdles will either disenfranchise or threaten the health of millions this year, assuming critical adjustments are not made soon and Covid-19 continues to upend normal life until fall.
<p>How governors, legislators, election administrators and the courts respond in these states — enormous and potential battleground Texas, deep blue Connecticut, and reliably red Mississippi, Missouri, South Carolina and Tennessee — will go a long way to determining how many Americans are prevented from participating in one of the most consequential elections in modern history.</p><p>The six — detailed below — stand apart after a handful of others with minimal voting safeguards, most recently Kentucky last week, have announced workarounds. </p><p>The most straightforward way to assess how problematic it is to vote in all 50 states is to look at their election laws and regulations. <a href="https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/preparing-election-under-pandemic-conditions" target="_blank">One compilation</a> routinely cited by civil rights and democracy reform groups is from the Brennan Center for Justice, which has assessed every state's readiness to conduct an election during a pandemic based on 11 policies the progressive advocacy group says should be in place. They are:</p><ul class="ee-ul"><li>No-excuse absentee balloting, permitting millions to easily avoid a trip to the polls.</li><li>Early in-person voting, allowing people to avoid potentially long lines on Election Day.</li><li>Online applications to vote absentee, meaning no special trips to print and deliver forms.</li><li>Online voter registration, for the same reason.</li><li>ID-free absentee voting, lowering hurdles for those without drivers' licenses or other government identification.</li><li>Witness-free absentee ballots, so solitary or ill people don't need to get close to someone willing to countersign their forms.</li><li>Postage-paid return envelopes, eliminating the main expense and inconvenience of voting by mail.</li><li>Counting ballots postmarked by Election Day, even if the mail delays their delivery as long as a week afterward.</li><li>Informing voters immediately if they've cast invaild absentee ballots and giving them a chance to fix the problem.</li><li>Registration and voting on Election Day, so those focused on economic or family troubles until the last minute could still cast a ballot. </li><li>Voting centers on Election Day, for those who may not find their home precinct most convenient.</li></ul><p>This combination of policies is supported by many independent election experts and significant numbers of state and local election officials from both parties. It was also central to guidelines released in March by the <a href="https://www.electiontaskforce.org/?emci=b2521f25-746f-ea11-a94c-00155d03b1e8&emdi=be4b8dc8-746f-ea11-a94c-00155d03b1e8&ceid=7658746" target="_blank">National Task Force on Election Crises</a>, a cross-partisan group of 40 experts in election law, election administration, national security, cybersecurity, voting rights and emergency response.</p><p>Based on this agenda, Mississippi stands alone as the least prepared of any state for holding an election during a health emergency where social distancing and staying out of public spaces is strongly recommended. It has just one of the 11 policies in place: No identification is required to complete an absentee ballot.</p><p>Mississippi — along with Connecticut, Missouri and South Carolina — are on the roster of just 10 states that don't allow all voters to cast ballots in person before Election Day, which in the rest of the country will limit overcrowding Nov. 3 and provide options for elderly, disabled and working people with scheduling and transportation challenges. </p><p>But the item on the policy roster being pushed hardest by democracy reform organizations is permitting "no excuse" absentee voting, because that would allow millions who fear catching Covid-19 to fill out their ballots at home and return them through the mail or in a socially distant drop box.</p><p>Laws on the books in all six of the most problematic states require absentee ballot applicants to declare their reason for doing so, generally from a finite roster or available excuses usually including disability, illness or age, and travel, work or religious obligations.</p><p>Such a requirement is labeled by good governance groups as antiquated and unnecessary, if not personally invasive. And it would undeniably dampen turnout in November, when many are not going to feel comfortable heading out to a polling place even if restrictions on leaving the house and congregating with others are lifted by then.</p><p>Ten other states similarly require an excused absence from the physical voting booth: Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Kentucky, Indiana, Louisiana, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York and West Virginia. But all have either waived that requirement or deemed the coronavirus outbreak a valid health reason, at least for voting in their primaries.</p><p>Control over that decision was entirely in GOP hands in four of those states, and the governor and top elections officials are from different parties in four others — suggesting a decent level of bipartisan support for expanding mail-in voting this year.</p><p>That is not apparent from listening to President Trump and many other prominent Republicans.</p><p>"If anyone can submit an absentee vote without a valid reason it raises the potential for voter fraud," Gov. Kay Ivey of Alabama told reporters last month. "And, y'all, in the middle of a public health crisis we don't need to open that up and add extra problems to our plate."</p><p>Trump voted absentee in this year's Florida primary and the 2018 midterm but has said repeatedly in recent weeks that voting by mail is "horrible," "corrupt" and "a very dangerous thing for this country, because they're cheaters." </p><p>At least as notably, he said he resisted efforts to legislate easements of election rules in the $2 trillion economic rescue package a month ago because those would have produced "levels of voting that, if you ever agreed to it, you'd never have a Republican elected in this country again."</p><p>Here is a countdown of the six states that look to have the most obstacles to conducting a high-turnout election during a pandemic — from bad to worst.</p>
6. Texas
<p>The second-most-populous state does have five of the 11 policies in place. There are 17 days of early voting and Election Day voter centers; there are no ID or witness signature requirements when casting an absentee ballot; and late-arriving mail ballots get counted if postmarked on time. There is also a limited do-over policy when absentee ballots get rejected. But voter registration ends a month before Election Day, there's no way to register online and an excuse is required for an absentee ballot.</p><p>A Democratic state judge ruled this month that the pandemic is enough of a reason to use mail-in ballots, but GOP Attorney General Ken Paxton says he adamantly opposes the idea and is appealing. If he prevails, the state's numbers may look like 2018, when just 6 percent of the 15.6 million votes were by mail.</p>5. Tennessee
<p>Five of the policies are in place: 20 days for early voting, voting centers, online voter registration, no ID required for mail ballots and no one required to countersign a mail ballot. Registration is closed a month before the election, though, and the prospect of easing the excuse requirement for an absentee ballot is remote.<br></p><p>The General Assembly has altered several election laws this year but defeated a proposal to allow people to vote by mail because of the coronavirus. The debate may be revived when lawmakers return in June. Republican Secretary of State Tre Hargett opposes the idea as too expensive. Mail ballots accounted for only 2 percent of the 4.2 million total cast 2018.</p>4. Connecticut
<p>The state has online and same-day registration, and does not require an ID or witness signature with a mail ballot. But there are no voting centers or early voting. And an absentee ballot application (which must be returned by mail or fax) allows only six narrow excuses for not voting in person — which is why only 6 percent of the state's 2.4 million voters used the mail last time.<br></p><p>After first rejecting the idea, Democratic Gov. Ned Lamont three weeks ago asked state lawyers if he can issue an executive order allowing unfettered mail voting during the pandemic. He has twice delayed the presidential primary. It's now Aug. 11, the same day as nominating contests for Congress and the Legislature.</p>3. South Carolina
<p>The state has only a couple of the policies fully in place. Would-be voters may register online, but not within a month of the election. (And the application's demand of a full Social Security number, as in only four other states, is being challenged in a federal lawsuit.) No proof of identity is required with an absentee ballot, which may be returned in person ahead of time — but only by someone meeting precise excuse requirements. And very few do: Just 4 percent of the 1.7 million votes in 2018 were by mail.<br></p><p>Two lawsuits, one brought by the NAACP and the American Civil Liberties Union, the other by the Democratic Party, ask a state judge to declare anyone in the state may vote absentee this year. One of the acceptable reasons for voting at home is a physical disability and the pandemic fits that definition, the lawsuits claim. GOP Attorney General Alan Wilson has not offered a response to that argument</p>2. Missouri
<p>The Show-Me State has shown little interest in policies that ease voting during the pandemic. Just three are in place: online registration, ID-free absentee balloting and postage-paid envelopes for returning those ballots. But there are no voting centers on Election Day and no places for casting a ballot ahead of time. That may help explain why 9 percent of 2.5 million votes cast in 2018 were mailed in — even though that required first mailing in an application providing an excuse to vote absentee.<br></p><p>The ACLU this month has sued in Missouri, as well. It argues that since standing in line at the polls is a health risk, and an acceptable excuse is illness or physical disability, "avoiding the contraction of the coronavirus" should be reason enough for absentee voting in the Aug. 4 primaries and the fall. Republican Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft says he doesn't have authority to make that change.</p>1. Mississippi
<p>Perhaps it is not surprising the place with perhaps the longest and most notorious record of voter suppression tops the list of least hospitable states for voting during this year's crisis. There is no in-person early voting. There are no Election Day voting centers. Registering online is not allowed, registering by mail has to be done a month before the election — and, unlike every other state, applicants who are naturalized citizens must provide documentary proof.<br></p><p>Mississippi is also alone in having enacted only one of the 11 top policies that make balloting easier in a pandemic: No ID is required to vote by mail. But applying for an absentee ballot has to be done on paper, and the form allows just two acceptable excuses — being disabled or being out of town on Election Day.</p><p>In the last election, only 7 percent of nearly 1 million ballots cast in 2018 arrived by mail — and that share is unlikely to grow this time. The state's primaries were in March, before the public health emergency took hold, and the conservative Republican state government has done nothing to signal interest in easing vote-by-mail rules for November.</p>From Your Site Articles
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A poll worker wipes down voting machines with a disinfectant in Miami Beach, Fla., during Tuesday's primary.
Coronavirus chaos at the polls as primaries proceed in 3 of 4 states
Mar 17 2020
Chaos reigned Tuesday in all three states that pressed ahead with their Democratic presidential primaries in the face of the burgeoning coronavirus pandemic.
Legions of poll workers, who are mainly older people and therefore in greatest danger of Covid-19 infection, canceled at the last minute or failed to show up at voting locations in Florida, Illinois and Arizona.
Voters were caught off guard when they found their usual polling places shuttered because of health concerns. People in the three states were told where to head instead but people in Ohio were told all voting had been canceled for the day. And plenty of Americans with compromised immune systems decided to walk away rather than risk their health at voting sites they reported were not following basic hygiene standards.
"If it were not so tragic, it would be comical," said Ami Gandhi of the Chicago Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights. His organization and a collection of other voting rights groups took stock of their reports from the field at midday.
<p>The voting got started in the trio of states — with a combined 441 Democratic delegates at stake — just hours after President Trump sharply escalated efforts to contain the spread of the highly contagious and potentially deadly virus, telling Americans to stay away from groups of more than 10 people and avoid unnecessary trips away from home for the next 15 days.</p><p>Late Monday night, Republican Gov. Mike DeWine of Ohio said that such a "health emergency" permitted him to order polls that were to open at 6:30 a.m. statewide to stay closed all day — even though a judge had ruled a few hours before that the election must go on. With the fate of 136 delegates at stake, and a relatively close contest in the state between former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders, the governor said he would work to get Democrats more time to vote. All this produced the greatest confusion and angst anywhere on Tuesday.</p><p>One positive was being pulled from all this catastrophe: The three states that went ahead had also allowed for periods of early voting — and each reported healthy numbers of people had already cast their ballots. </p><p>Still, there was solid evidence that turnout on the climactic day of the primaries was going to be significantly less than had been expected.</p><p>Here are more details about what has been happening Tuesday in the three states holding primaries and the one that canceled.</p><h3>Florida</h3><p>Several polling places in Palm Beach did not open at all Tuesday morning because there were no officials there to unlock the equipment.</p><p>Elizabeth McClenaghan, chairwoman of the board of the state's <a href="http://thefulcrum.us/common-cause" target="_self">Common Cause</a> chapter, said some facilities where seniors live that were supposed to be voting sites chose on their own to opt out even though they were not covered by state bans on visitations to nursing facilities. </p><p>In addition, McClenaghan said her group was receiving calls from people who were afraid to vote because their immune systems are compromised and there were reports about places without supplies of sanitizer for voters or disinfecting wipes for cleaning voting equipment between each ballot. </p><p>Nearly 4.5 million Floridians, more than one in five, are 65 or older, the highest percentage of any state in the country.</p><h3>Illinois</h3><p>Gandhi with the lawyers' committee said that for the first time on an Election Day her group was hearing more from frustrated poll workers than from voters.</p><p>She said some were substituting for poll workers who had canceled and these people were not sure where to go or what to do and could not reach local election officials. She cited one instance where 25 people had been turned away from a polling site that did not open on time. Eventually, her group was able to redirect people to another location. </p><p>A major problem, she said, was the last-minute change in voting locations that left people confused.</p><h3>Arizona</h3><p>Closed and changed voting sites were also a problem across the Grand Canyon State. In Maricopa County, where Phoenix is located, 80 voting sites were closed because of a lack of poll workers or cleaning supplies to disinfect the sites.</p><p>The remaining 151 sites were redesignated as voting centers, meaning that anyone may vote at them. But all the changes left voters confused, said Patty Ferguson-Bohnee, head of the Indian Legal Program at Arizona State University.</p><p>Ferguson-Bohnee also expressed concern that proposals to remedy the voting problems by expanding voting by mail may not work for tribal voters who often do not have access to regular mail service.</p><h3>Ohio</h3><p>The cancelation came so late that many voters were not even aware of the decision.</p><p>Kristen Clarke, president of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, used the terms "deeply disturbing," "sheer chaos" and "unlike anything we have seen before" to describe what was happening across the state.</p><p>Ohio Department of Health Director Amy Acton formally issued an order closing all of the state's polling places. Early Tuesday the state Supreme Court rejected an attempt to open them.</p><p>Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose announced Tuesday that the primary would be rescheduled for June 2 but later in the day the legislative leaders in Columbus announced that setting a new date was their prerogative. </p><p>The issue is expected to end up in the courts.</p>
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Companies unite in pledge to give workers time for voting
Feb 20 2020
At least 2 million workers will be given paid time off to vote for president this fall under a pact formed by hundreds of companies, which say boosting turnout is part of their corporate civic responsibility.
The agreement was announced Wednesday by a business coalition, Time to Vote, which said 383 firms have already made such a promise. The goal is to expand the roster to 1,000 by Election Day, doubling the participants in a similar initiative ahead of the 2018 congressional midterms.
The commitment by corporate America to support their employees' civic engagement is notable because efforts to shape turnout have been such a partisan flashpoint in recent years — and because not being able to break away from work is the top reason people cite for not voting.
<p>Turnout is central to the outcome in every close election, and both sides say that will be true again in November. In only three of the past five presidential contests have more than 60 percent of eligible voters cast ballots. </p><p>Democratic legislatures have recently been assertive in pushing measures designed to make casting ballots more convenient, while Republicans in charge of statehouses have been more motivated to set strict rules for voting, they say in order to combat potential fraud. Smaller nationwide turnouts have tended to benefit the GOP, however.</p><p>The commitment by the companies could factor into what is expected to be a considerable increase in turnout as President Trump stands for re-election.</p><p>Bosses of companies in the Time to Vote coalition have promised to commit to accommodating workers in voting with paid time off on Election Day, by eliminating meetings or other internal obligations on Nov. 3, or by spending to help employees who are permitted to vote early or by mail.</p><p>A year ago House Democrats touted, but then <a href="https://thefulcrum.us/congress/missing-election-day-holiday-hr1" target="_self">quietly abandoned</a>, legislation making Election Day a federal holiday. It is, however, a holiday for public sector workers in 13 states, the biggest of them New York and Illinois. And many unionized workers have paid time off for voting guarantees in their contracts.</p><p>Few who, so far, have signed on to Time to Vote are reliant on union labor. Among the members are financial services and health firms including JP Morgan Chase, Farmers Insurance and Kaiser Permanente; the information technology spinoff of Hewlett Packard; online businesses from Lyft to PayPal; and an array of retailers including Best Buy, Dick's Sporting Goods, Gap, Patagonia, REI Co-op, Target and Walmart. </p><p>Time to Vote, which says it's nonpartisan, first organized during the campaign two years ago, and the resulting 53 percent turnout was the highest in a century for a midterm. </p><p>Americans <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/11/05/in-their-own-words-why-some-people-find-voting-difficult/" target="_blank">surveyed by the Pew Research Center</a> before that election said they felt voting was important, but not always convenient. More than one-fifth of those surveyed cited logistical concerns as the main reason voting was difficult. And surveys by the Census Bureau after the last three midterms found that work or school conflicts were far and away the main reason cited by people who did not vote — more than a quarter of respondents each time.</p><p>A similar initiative that aims to alleviate these concerns for workers is <a href="https://www.electionday.org/" target="_blank">ElectionDay.org</a>, a project by the nonprofit <a href="https://www.vote.org/" target="_blank">Vote.org</a>. More than 490 companies have promised to adopt policies that make voting easier for their workers.</p><p>This effort to increase voter participation from the business community "sends a powerful message," said Michael Waldman, president of the <a href="https://thefulcrum.us/directory/brennan-center-for-justice" target="_self">Brennan Center for Justice</a>, a left-leaning group that advocates for many democracy reforms. "Ultimately, a culture shift will meaningfully boost voter participation, and business leaders can help drive that shift," he said.</p>
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Democrats in charge in Richmond are about to make Election Day a Virginia holiday while dropping the holiday honoring Robert E. Lee (above, in Charlottesville) and his Confederate Army colleague Stonewall Jackson.
Election Day holiday to boot Lee, Jackson to Virginia history
Feb 07 2020
Virginia is about to eliminate a holiday honoring the state's two most famous Confederate generals, Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson, and replace it by making Election Day a statewide holiday.
With the state government under entirely Democratic control for the first time in a quarter-century, the symbolically rich switch is part of an array of measures advancing through Richmond that are designed to make it easier to vote — including a first-in-the nation legislative repeal of a photo ID mandate.
Virginia would join eight other states that give all their workers a paid day off for voting in presidential and midterm election years — a move that prompts many businesses, schools and local governments to declare a similar holiday for their employees.
<p>The House of Delegates passed the holiday legislation 55-42 on Thursday, sending the proposal to the Senate, which voted 22-18 for a similar bill last month. Gov. Ralph Northam has said he favors the idea.</p>
<p>The General Assembly designated a holiday to honor the birthday of Lee, commanding general of the Confederate Army, in 1890. Fourteen years later Jackson was added to the holiday. </p>
<p>When the Martin Luther King Jr. federal holiday was created in 1983, the state decided to combine it with its Lee-Jackson holiday. But after objections to the idea of linking two generals who fought to defend slavery to the civil rights icon, the two holidays were separated. The generals' day is now observed the Friday before the King holiday.</p>
<p>Last year, Democrats in Congress proposed democracy reform legislation that originally included making Election Day a federal holiday, but t<a data-linked-post="2639789859" href="https://thefulcrum.us/congress/missing-election-day-holiday-hr1" target="_blank">hat provision was quietly stripped from the final bill</a> that passed the House. </p>
<p>In recent years, a movement to remove monuments and flags that honor the Confederacy has gained momentum. Proponents note that many of the monuments were put in place around the turn of the 19th century, long after the Civil War ended and during the height of the Jim Crow era. They say the memorials were an attempt to enforce white supremacy.</p>
<p>Another democracy-related element of the 11-point Virginia 2020 Plan that Northam and Democratic state legislative leaders unveiled in January calls for removing the requirement that people using absentee ballots provide a reason why they need to vote early. Senators have already voted to do so.</p>
<p>The Senate also voted this week for a bill to <a data-linked-post="2645054423" href="https://thefulcrum.us/voting/virginia-repeal-photo-id" target="_blank">get rid of the requirement that voters show a photo ID</a>. Such a measure is already through a House committee.</p>
<p>One other reform issue that remains unresolved is whether Virginia will change the way it draws its legislative and congressional boundaries every decade. Last year, the General Assembly approved placing a constitutional amendment on the ballot that would create an independent redistricting commission to draw the lines instead of lawmakers.</p>
<p>For that to happen in November, in time for the post-census map-making for the 2020s, legislators must vote for the idea a second time before recessing a month from now.</p>
<p>Some black Democrats in Richmond have objected to the proposed ballot measure, which says if the commission can't agree on a map then the work would be handed to the state Supreme Court, which has a majority of justices appointed by GOP governors. Republicans are accusing Democrats of hypocrisy for getting cold feet about changing the current system now that they have benefitted from it with their new majorities.</p>
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