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Supports of ranked-choice voting in Massachusetts rallied to support the alternative voting method in July.
As ranked-choice voting gains acceptance, critics push back
Aug 27 2020
Most Americans are accustomed to a winner-take-all voting process, making one, decisive choice between a multitude of candidates.
Ranked-choice voting changes the standard methodology. RCV allows voters to rank multiple candidates in order of personal preference, replacing a "plurality winner" system with a vastly different election process that hasn't been widely seen in the United States for some time.
This past year, ranked-choice voting has been having a sort of coming-out party. It was used in Democratic presidential primaries in four states as well as the Nevada caucuses. And referendums instituting ranked-choice voting are on the ballot this fall in five cities and three states — Alaska, Massachusetts and North Dakota.
<p>RCV advocates got a big boost in June when the prestigious American Academy of Arts and Sciences included it among <a href="https://thefulcrum.us/big-picture/american-academy-of-arts-and-sciences" target="_self">31 proposals for improving American democracy</a>. The report hailed ranked-choice voting as a more representative system for choosing candidates while eliminating campaign mudslinging that comes with every election cycle.</p><p>(Nevertheless, a judge in Maine <a data-linked-post="2647095829" href="https://thefulcrum.us/maine-ranked-choice-voting-2647095829" target="_blank">approved a ballot measure</a> to invalidate ranked-choice voting at the presidential level in the one place it already has been approved statewide.) </p><p><p style="text-align: center;" id="sufn"><a style="font-weight: bold;margin:40px auto;font-size:2rem" href="https://thefulcrum.us/st/newsletters">Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter </a></p></p><p>As ranked-choice voting has received more attention, it has also become subject to increased pushback. Some experts contend RCV can hurt voter participation and that it isn't necessarily more representative of voters' choices. </p><p>Though briefly implemented in the early 1940s across various states, RCV began a modest comeback in the U.S. more recently. Maine became the first state to pass statewide ranked-choice voting in 2016 and more than a dozen cities across the country, including San Francisco, Minneapolis and Cambridge, Mass,. are also using some form of RCV. New York will begin using it for city elections in 2021.</p><p>Under RCV, voters can rank candidates for each office in order of personal preference. If no one candidate earns a majority of first-choice ballots, the candidate with the lowest number of top-choice selections is eliminated and his or her votes are allocated to those voters' second-choice candidate. This process continues until one candidate earns a majority. The system is also known as instant runoff voting.</p><p><div class="x12"><div class="htlad-Desktop_Content_Banner"></div></div></p><p>By allowing voters to rank multiple candidates, advocates for RCV say fewer ballots are wasted. Many voters cast ballots early for candidates that end up dropping out of a race, with those ballots no longer contributing to the outcome of an election.</p><p>According to a <a href="https://docsend.com/view/jnu3d442irjgaagb" target="_blank">report</a> by Unite America, a nonpartisan good-government advocacy organization, during this year's presidential primaries approximately 3 million ballots were cast across 14 states for candidates who had already withdrawn from the race. Those ballots were "wasted," according to the report. In California alone, <a href="https://calmatters.org/politics/california-election-2020/2020/03/voting-california-dropped-out-candidates-super-tuesday/" target="_blank">local media reported</a> nearly 400,000 ballots were cast in the Democratic presidential primary for candidates who were no longer in the race. (Unite America provides financial support to The Fulcrum.)</p><p>In Democratic presidential contests, candidates need to retain 15 percent of the vote in order to earn delegates, with Republican contests requiring 20 percent, creating the potential for candidates no longer running to earned enough support to remain as contenders in the presidential election under a RCV voting system.</p><p><div class="x12"><div class="htlad-Desktop_Content_Banner"></div></div></p><p>RCV advocates say that counting more ballots in an election is more reflective of an electorate's voice, and in turn more democratic. But under the plurality system, where the candidate who earns the most ballots wins, someone who receives less than 50 percent of the vote can still be declared a winner. For example, during Illinois' March primary, Democrat Marie Newman won the nomination for a U.S. House seat with 47.3 percent of the vote. And in May, Republican Cliff Bentz won a House primary with 31.4 percent. Both are favored to win in the fall.</p><p>In a <a href="https://www.fairvote.org/plurality_wins_in_2020_a_violation_of_america_s_majority_rule_principle" target="_blank">blog post</a>, FairVote, a nonpartisan champion of ranked-choice voting, highlighted Newman's win as an example of the flaws with plurality voting and questioned whether these winners are actually the most preferred candidates by their constituents. </p><p>With ranked-choice voting, voters might feel more empowered because they can support their first choice — perhaps not a major-party candidate — and still have the power to back other candidates they like without sacrificing their vote. And, proponents says, candidates would be more inclined to wage a civil campaign in order to earn secondary placement on ballots.</p><p>"It really changes the incentives for candidates engaging with voters and voters having that greater ability to make their vote count. It's really quite a dramatic way to do it," said Rob Richie, CEO and president of FairVote.</p><p>FairVote conducted an <a href="https://www.fairvote.org/research_rcvvoterturnout" target="_blank">analysis of voter turnout</a> in six local jurisdictions in California, Minnesota and New Mexico that implemented RCV. The data showed an uptick in voter participation after the system was changed.</p><p>However, some experts contend that ranked-choice voting isn't the perfect solution to finding a stronger, more representative voting system. James Campbell, professor of political science at the University of Buffalo, published a paper this year analyzing the effects of ranked-choice voting in Maine. He said that in some RCV elections, the winning candidates did not receive a majority of the total votes cast because a significant number of voters did not rank the full field of candidates, a phenomenon known as "ballot exhaustion." Campbell argues this defeats the purpose of RCV's intent to represent a majority of voters.</p><p>"Portraying ranked-choice voting as getting so many more people out, and participating and the choice, they may be out to vote for their first or second candidate but after that there's a lot of drop off," said Campbell.</p><p>Others argue for yet other alternative systems, like approval voting. Fargo, N.D., is the only jurisdiction currently using this system, which allows voters to support multiple candidates without ranking them. Proponents claim it is less complicated for both voters and those charged with tallying the ballots. St. Louis voters will decide in November whether to implement a version of approval voting.</p><p>FairVote's Richie recognizes many of the critiques that come with RCV, but says context is critical when analyzing the outcome of RCV implementation. The competitiveness of a race, the number of candidates running and the overarching political climate can be exclusive to a certain election cycle and can widely influence voter participation. </p><p>To consider some of those concerns, New York City conducted an <a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5bfc4cecfcf7fde7d3719c06/t/5d83dffbf8b08c5b3087ecc4/1568923645088/Final+Report_8.2.pdf" target="_blank">analysis</a> of ranked-choice voting prior to putting it on the November 2019 ballot for voter approval. The city heard testimony from RCV advocacy organizations, including FairVote, that affirmed ranking a large number of candidates "can help ameliorate the issue of ballot exhaustion." </p><p>Advocates recommended that the city limit voters to ranking five or six candidates as "ballot exhaustion is especially uncommon when voters can rank a reasonable number of candidates."</p><p>On top of potential ballot exhaustion, Campbell argued that in certain circumstances like a general election, the pressure should be on all voters to make a clear choice. In the instance that a voter's first choice doesn't earn enough of a majority and their vote is reassigned to their second choice candidate, Campbell said that change is "not really democratic in a sense."</p><p>"I think it's psychologically very different to have somebody make that decision as opposed to having their votes used as though they made that decision," said Campbell. </p><p>Richie contends that people should not treat ranked-choice voting as a perfect solution, but merely a better option to the current plurality voting system. By looking at the growing data on RCV comprehensively, Richie feels confident it has the potential to effect positive change across the country.</p><p>"I think that when you look at the fuller picture, I feel very confident that ranked-choice voting is doing good things," said Richie.</p>
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President Trump tweeted that, unlike Florida, Nevada is incapable of managing a vote-by-mail election.
Claim: Nevada has no mail-in ballot infrastructure. Fact check: False
Aug 06 2020
Nevada has ZERO infrastructure for Mail-In Voting. It will be a corrupt disaster if not ended by the Courts. It wil… https://t.co/WkSC3J1bx5— Donald J. Trump (@Donald J. Trump)1596625719.0
The Nevada Legislature passed a bill, signed by Gov. Steve Sisolak on Monday, that will send a mail-in ballot to every active registered voter in the state. Trump has voiced opposition to this bill and claimed the state lacks the infrastructure for running such an election. And the Trump campaign launched a lawsuit on Wednesday against Nevada to prevent this measure from going into effect for the election.
But Nevada does have infrastructure in place for mail-in voting. The June primary was held almost entirely through mail-in voting. Over 98 percent of the 491,654 ballots cast in the primary were submitted through mail-in voting, and the election saw very high voter turnout. Additionally, over 10,000 primary ballots were rejected because they were incorrectly submitted, demonstrating the states ability to weed out improper ballots. Through the CARES Act, Nevada received $4,500,000 to help pay for the cost of setting up infrastructure and hiring personnel to count mail-in ballots.
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President Trump praised GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis for building "a great infrastructure" for Florida mail-in voting.
Trump explains why mail voting merits a lawsuit in Nevada but praise in Florida
Aug 05 2020
The Trump campaign has put its lawyers where the candidate's mouth is — although, all of a sudden, not where it is all the time.
President Trump's re-election team sued late Tuesday to block the delivery of a mail-in ballot to every voter in potential battleground Nevada this fall. The lawsuit was filed just hours after Trump created one of the most whiplash-inducing moments of the campaign. After making baseless accusations dozens of times that easy voting through the mail guarantees a rigged election, he encouraged every voter in Florida — but only Florida, the biggest purple state — to find a stamp and vote from home.
<p>In a tweet Wednesday, Trump asserted the situations in the two states were fundamentally different — both logistically, which is highly questionable, and, he conceded, politically:<br></p><p>"Nevada has ZERO infrastructure for Mail-In Voting," he said, disregarding that the state's primary in June was conducted almost entirely by mail. "It will be a corrupt disaster if not ended by the Courts. It will take months, or years, to figure out. Florida has built a great infrastructure, over years, with two great Republican Governors. Florida, send in your Ballots!"</p><p><p style="text-align: center;" id="sufn"><a style="font-weight: bold;margin:40px auto;font-size:2rem" href="https://thefulcrum.us/st/newsletters">Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter </a></p></p><p>Voting by mail looks guaranteed to surge this fall because of the intensifying coronavirus pandemic, even in states that have not already made that process easier. For months, Trump has claimed that expanded remote voting will make it easy for fraudsters to steal his second term, an unprecedented presidential rattling of the democratic process. </p><p>There is essentially no evidence to support his fear, but polling has shown many more Republicans believe the president than Democrats — a situation that has many GOP operatives worried that Trump's own sowing of doubt could assure his defeat.</p><p>The federal lawsuit, in which Trump was joined by the Republican National Committee and the Nevada GOP, says Nevada's new procedures for the fall election will make "voter fraud and other ineligible voting inevitable."</p><p>The plaintiffs claimed "a vital interest in protecting the ability of Republican voters to cast, and Republican candidates to receive, effective votes in Nevada elections and elsewhere," And, their suit said, "Major or hasty changes confuse voters, undermine confidence in the electoral process and create incentive to remain away from the polls."</p><p><div class="x12"><div class="htlad-Desktop_Content_Banner"></div></div></p><p>Trump first <a href="https://thefulcrum.us/nevada-vote-by-mail-ballot" target="_self">threatened to sue</a> on Monday, just before Gov. Steve Sisolak signed the measure, which his fellow Democrats in control of the Legislature cleared over the weekend. In addition to mandating an absentee ballot be delivered to all 1.6 million active registered voters, the law decrees that ballots postmarked by Nov. 3 will be counted if they're delayed in the mail as long as a week, and envelopes with unclear postmarks will be tabulated if they arrive three days late. Until now, ballots had to be in hand by Election Day, the rule in about two-thirds of the states.</p><p>The law also eases restrictions to allow party operatives to pick up and deliver the ballots of others — a practice, in place in about a dozen states, that Republicans label as "ballot harvesting" and say is ripe for abuse.</p><p><div class="x12"><div class="htlad-Desktop_Content_Banner"></div></div></p><p>The suit derided those provisions as "head-scratching" because they were enacted after the June primary. </p><p>The highest-ranking Republican in Nevada, Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske, was the one who decided to proactively mail out ballots for that primary, a first in the state. And she told lawmakers in Carson City that she found no evidence of fraud. But she opposed the new law because of its ballot collection provision.</p><p>Nevada, with six electoral votes, Minnesota (10) and New Hampshire (4) are the states won by Hillary Clinton in 2016 that the Trump campaign has planned to contest.</p><p>Complicating matters has been Trump's effort to distinguish between the mail voting he disdains and absentee voting, which he says is fine by (and used by) him. The two terms are widely viewed as synonymous. In Florida, like most states, for example, no excuse is required to request an absentee ballot — and about one-third of all votes in recent elections have been mailed in using those forms.</p><p>"Whether you call it Vote by Mail or Absentee Voting, in Florida the election system is Safe and Secure, Tried and True," Trump tweeted Tuesday. "Florida's Voting system has been cleaned up (we defeated Democrats attempts at change), so in Florida I encourage all to request a Ballot & Vote by Mail!"</p><p>The president was perhaps referring to <a href="https://thefulcrum.us/voting/vote-by-mail-florida" target="_self">a recent settlement</a> in which Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis ceded little ground to plaintiffs seeking easier paths to voting. </p><p>Recent polling suggests that Trump winning re-election without Florida's 29 electoral votes is increasingly implausible. The state's elderly population, which tilts decidedly to the GOP, has been especially reliant on absentee voting.</p><p>Eight other jurisdictions also plan to deliver mail ballots to all registered voters this fall. Hawaii, Colorado, Oregon, Utah and Washington planned to do so before the pandemic. Vermont, California and the District of Columbia decided to do so this summer. </p><p>Last week, he even suggested delaying the election rather than relying on so much more mail voting. The president does not have the power to do that, and the idea was <a href="https://thefulcrum.us/big-picture/trump-election-delay" target="_self">immediately shot down</a> by the Republcian leaders in Congress, which does have the power.</p>
Claim: Michigan illegally sent absentee ballots to voters. Fact check: False
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://thefulcrum.us/media-library/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzMyNTY5MS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0MTQ4OTA0OH0.3x8_1BPtn9V5UECTQE23fTbhCdXXsfyYl9avZl20PXk/image.jpg?width=980" id="2e0fb" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="0a4d12a5d2ce7cef14a01868a4a98f0f" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />Chiara Vercellone, Medill School<p><br/></p> <p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-twitter_embed"> <div id="482a5" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="6eec36c91ba8e9a66f00a92ef705d924"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1263170880298942464" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Michigan sends absentee ballot applications to 7.7 million people ahead of Primaries and the General Election. This… https://t.co/O2Y8dXRvmd</div> — Donald J. Trump (@Donald J. Trump)<a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/statuses/1263170880298942464">1589998381.0</a></blockquote></div> </p> <br/><p>Michigan did not send ballots to registered voters like President Trump said. Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, who has encouraged all voters to vote by mail for all elections held this year, <a href="https://www.michigan.gov/sos/0,4670,7-127-93094-529536--,00.html" target="_blank">announced</a> Tuesday all 7.7 million registered voters would receive applications to vote by mail in the August primary and November general elections.</p><p>Responding to the president, Benson <a href="https://twitter.com/JocelynBenson/status/1263089382690631680" target="_blank">noted</a> that her office was sending applications, not ballots, "just like my GOP colleagues in Iowa, Georgia, Nebraska and West Virginia." The applications sent out, Benson said, ensure "that no Michigander has to choose between their health and their right to vote."</p><p>In a similar tweet, Trump also <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1263094958417985538" target="_blank">accused</a> the state of Nevada's election officials of sending mail-in ballots to voters. Earlier this month, Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske, a Republican, announced registered voters would start receiving mailed absentee ballots to vote for the primary, held predominantly by mail.</p>Claim: Nevada illegally mailed absentee ballots to registered voters. Fact check: False
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://thefulcrum.us/media-library/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzMyNTc3NC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyNjU0MTkwMn0.9oH0pwQkfg_fT-6IIL_mDHs2pI73WmIS28VfJspxl1g/image.jpg?width=980" id="73509" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="dcfea2fbb27a394f97c8a693226b1941" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />Kelly Cannon, Medill School<p><br/></p> <p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-twitter_embed"> <div id="2c27e" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="8887315656132f699df4d2951fef6bb7"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1263094958417985538" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">State of Nevada “thinks” that they can send out illegal vote by mail ballots, creating a great Voter Fraud scenario… https://t.co/i9017leWhq</div> — Donald J. Trump (@Donald J. Trump)<a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/statuses/1263094958417985538">1589980279.0</a></blockquote></div> </p> <p><br/></p><p>Nevada allows any voter to vote absentee by mail. Like in many other states adapting to carrying out elections amidst a global pandemic, Nevada Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske declared the upcoming primary would be carried out by mail due to the coronavirus. A federal judge recently ruled that conducting the primary election by mail ballot was lawful in <a href="https://www.courthousenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/order.pdf" target="_blank">rejecting an injunction</a> to block Nevada's primary.</p><p>President Trump's tweet suggests voting-by-mail is fraudulent, despite a lack of evidence to support the claim. In a <a href="https://www.nvsos.gov/sos/Home/Components/News/News/2839/23" target="_blank">press release responding to Trump,</a> Cegavske, a Republican, said Nevadans "have been voting by mail with no evidence of election fraud" for over a century, including members of the military, citizens residing outside the state, voters in designated mailing precincts, and voters requesting absentee ballots. Cegavske said all 17 counties have established processes and procedures in place for safe and secure mail-in voting. Research shows voter fraud with mail-in ballots is rare and even with the increase in mail voting over time, fraud rates remain "infinitesimally small," <a href="https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/false-narrative-vote-mail-fraud" target="_blank">according to the Brennan Center.</a></p><p>The tweet also seems to suggest that Trump has the legal authority to "hold up funds" to the state of Nevada for carrying out its upcoming primary by allowing all voters to vote by mail. No such legal authority exists.</p><p>The statements made here are alike to those in another tweet Trump wrote, which levied substantially similar claims about the state of Michigan. Trump <a href="https://nationalsecurityzone.medill.northwestern.edu/covidanalyzer/facts/michigan-illegally-sent-absentee-ballots-to-voters/" target="_blank">falsely accused</a> Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson of illegally mailing out absentee ballots to 7.7 million Michiganders for the state's primary and general elections.</p>Claim: Vote-by-mail ballots will create a rigged election en California. Fact check: False
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://thefulcrum.us/media-library/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMjg4MzI2MC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0OTc2NjM5Nn0.UX8MnuW5FuRzGGJYFeB9sxdAzFSxTxUQmoUmKUDhOdM/image.jpg?width=980" id="3dfad" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="ffa3b45f989e399caec04cf5d10063ac" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />Sara Wilson, Medill School<p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-twitter_embed cc_cursor"> </p><p>President Trump tweeted another claim about states "illegally" sending ballots or absentee applications to voters. His series of tweets about California specifically say that Gov. Gavin Newsom is sending ballots to "anyone living in the state, no matter who they are or how they got there," suggesting that people who aren't citizens are voting en masse.</p><p>Newsom issued an <a href="https://www.sos.ca.gov/administration/news-releases-and-advisories/2020-news-releases-and-advisories/ap20045-eo-send-vote-mail-ballot-november-3-2020-general-election/" target="_blank">executive order</a> on May 8 to send every registered voter — not anyone living in the state — a vote-by-mail ballot for the Nov. 3 election. People can still vote in person if they want.</p><p>Voter fraud in the United States is very rare. An analysis from a team of investigative journalists <a href="https://votingrights.news21.com/article/about/" target="_blank">found 491 instances</a> of absentee voter fraud between 2000 and 2012. "Mail ballot fraud is incredibly rare, and legitimate security concerns can be easily addressed," <a href="https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/false-narrative-vote-mail-fraud" target="_blank">according to experts</a> from the Brennan Center.</p><p>There is also little evidence that undocumented immigrants are voting in California or elsewhere. David Becker, the executive director of the Center for Election Innovation & Research, <a href="https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2018/nov/16/lou-dobbs/no-evidence-many-illegal-immigrants-voted-midterm-/" target="_blank">told Politifact in 2018</a> that "There's zero evidence of even dozens, let alone millions, of non citizens voting in this or any other election."</p>Claim: Voters in New Mexico are being sent multiple absentee ballots. Fact check: False
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://thefulcrum.us/media-library/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMjkzNTUwOS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzMzYzNDQyOH0.Dn1zu9Dkij4irfA0p8K16k5jghsjdWQ-5y1FhBHYaEg/image.jpg?width=980" id="2dab4" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="26136f46d9543d70ddf070d20fb2b483" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />Sam Cabral, Medill School<p><br/></p> <p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-twitter_embed"> <div id="432ac" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="a76face3f8a87db2f3eddcdc476f8e5c"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1263161316711239680" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">WOW: A friend just sent this to me This is the reality of mail-in voting Why are houses with two people being se… https://t.co/obVxXu6EXF</div> — Charlie Kirk (@Charlie Kirk)<a href="https://twitter.com/charliekirk11/statuses/1263161316711239680">1589996100.0</a></blockquote></div> </p> <p>Charlie Kirk is conflating the issue mentioned in the photo he himself shared. As the post in the attached photo states, the household in question has received several applications to request a mail-in ballot for the upcoming election, but not ballots themselves, as Kirk falsely states.</p><p>Ahead of the state's June 2 primary election, officials in New Mexico are urging eligible voters to cast ballots by mail to reduce the risk of coronavirus transmission. Voters have <a href="https://www.kob.com/albuquerque-news/absentee-voting-catches-on-in-new-mexico-for-june-2-primary/5734892/" target="_blank">responded in kind</a> with a massive increase in requests submitted, and thousands of ballots have already been completed and returned.</p>From Your Site Articles
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The vote-by-mail bill also expands ballot harvesting, which proponents say is critical to boosting turnout in Nevada's poor, rural communities.
Nevada moves to send mail ballots to all; Trump threatens to sue to stop that
Aug 03 2020
President Trump on Monday threatened to sue to stop Nevada from delivering absentee ballots to all active voters, just hours after the Legislature voted to conduct the state's presidential election mainly by mail because of the coronavirus.
Solidly blue California and Vermont have made similar decisions this summer, joining five states that were going to be almost wholly vote-by-mail before the pandemic.
Nevada becomes the first somewhat purple place on the roster, however, and the president asserted without evidence the switch will make it impossible for him to carry its six electoral votes. It was the latest of at least six dozen statements he's made seeking to rattle confidence in the democratic process by asserting mailed ballots will magnify fraud and minimize GOP electoral strength.
<p>"In an illegal late night coup, Nevada's clubhouse Governor made it impossible for Republicans to win the state," Trump declared on Twitter. "Post Office could never handle the Traffic of Mail-In Votes without preparation. Using Covid to steal the state. See you in Court!"</p>
<p>Gov. Steve Sisolak is planning to sign the measure, which his fellow Democrats in Carson City pushed through over the weekend on back-to-back party-line votes. Sunday's Senate vote clearing he bill was 13-8.<br></p><p><p style="text-align: center;" id="sufn"><a style="font-weight: bold;margin:40px auto;font-size:2rem" href="https://thefulcrum.us/st/newsletters">Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter </a></p></p><p>Trump offered no hint about his legal argument for blocking the impending law, and so far this year the federal courts — including a steady stream of rulings from the Supreme Court — have largely left it to the states to decide election regulations for themselves.</p><p>Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske, the only Republican statewide elected official, told lawmakers Friday that she was not aware of any fraud in the June primary, the first time the state mailed all active voters absentee ballots. </p><p>Although just 2 percent of votes were cast in person, the main complaint was about lines as long as eight hours because only a handful of polling places were open in Las Vegas and Reno, where seven of eight Nevadans live. Just 19 were open statewide. The new legislation will mandate 140 polling stations on Nov. 3, almost as many as two years ago. </p><p><div class="x12"><div class="htlad-Desktop_Content_Banner"></div></div></p><p>Cegavske nonetheless opposed the bill, which she said was written without her input, mainly because it has a provision broadly expanding permission for the collection and return of absentee envelopes by non-family members including political operatives. Republicans say this "ballot harvesting" can also incubate election theft. Voting rights groups say it helps turnout in poorer rural communities, especially on Native American reservations.</p><p>The bill provides $3 million to proactively distribute mail ballots. But Cegavske said that was not enough to cover the expense for equipment, education, printing and postage for delivering 1.6 million of them — and provided nothing to counties for opening and tabulating them. </p><p>That problem would be solved if the next economic recovery package from Congress includes more money to help states conduct their elections, but negotiations on the package are at an impasse.</p><p>Nevada got 1 percent of the $400 million in election grants Congress approved this spring and used that money mainly on the primary, though some equipment purchased for that election can be used again.</p><p><div class="x12"><div class="htlad-Desktop_Content_Banner"></div></div></p><p>Just 9 percent of Nevada votes were cast by mail two years ago, so the president is on to something in suggesting the challenges — to get ready in three months for that number to multiply perhaps tenfold — are daunting.</p><p>Since the pandemic took hold and the county started looking to on rely mail ballots as never before, Trump has asserted that the system "doesn't work out well for Republicans." But his party's operatives have been embracing it for decades, and <a href="https://thefulcrum.us/voting/vote-by-mail-studies" target="_self">a recent study</a> concluded it does not benefit one party over another. </p><p>And experts say there is no evidence of meaningful election fraud associated with mail-in voting.</p><p>Election officials and voting rights groups also universally contradict Trump's claim that there's a meaningful difference between absentee ballots, which he approves of and has used several times himself, and vote-by-mail ballots. The two are synonymous because they are processed the same way.</p><p>Monday's tweet comes a month after the <a href="https://thefulcrum.us/voting/absentee-voting-pennsylvania-2646299405" target="_self">Trump campaign sued</a> to stop officials in battleground Pennsylvania from relaxing some of their vote-by-mail rules. The national GOP is fighting lawsuits over voting rules in at least 18 other states.</p><p>And last week he floated the idea of delaying the election – which he has no authority to do — as the best way to counter the rise of mail voting. The suggestion was met with unusually clear and quick <a href="https://thefulcrum.us/big-picture/trump-election-delay" target="_self">rejection from Republicans</a>. </p><p>Four years ago Hillary Clinton won Nevada by 3 points, or 27,000 votes — the third straight Democrat to do so as the state's Latino and suburban white-collar populations expand. But the Trump campaign had been talking of spending there this fall, along with just two other states that he lost narrowly but asserted he was in position to flip this time: Minnesota and New Hampshire.</p>
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