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Long lines, like those experienced by Atlanta primary voters on June 9, can be prevented by keeping more polling locations open and expanding early voting.
Protecting voters in November means keeping polling places open
Aug 03 2020
Benson is Michigan's secretary of state and Underwood, a fellow Democrat, is a member of the House of Representatives from Illinois. Firestone and Palfrey are attorneys with the Voter Protection Corps.
<p>After a series of deeply disrupted spring elections, it's clear that Covid-19 is the latest threat to voting rights in America. Many advocates and election officials, ourselves included, are working to expand vote-by-mail, which reduces risks of transmission of the coronavirus and can increase turnout. In recent primaries, mail-in voting rates have skyrocketed by 10 or even 20 times. </p><p>But protecting the November election requires an all-of-the-above approach that keeps polling places open. If we fail to act, we will disenfranchise the same Americans historically excluded from voting.</p><p>In the last presidential election, three-quarters of all Americans who cast a ballot — nearly 110 million people — did so in person at an early voting site or on Election Day. Members of historically marginalized groups voted in person at even higher rates. In a <a href="https://www.census.gov/data/tables/time-series/demo/voting-and-registration/p20-583.html" target="_blank">2018 census report</a>, Black Americans were the most likely racial group tracked to participate in in-person voting, at 88 percent, and the least likely to vote through the mail. Native Americans, younger voters with less stable mailing addresses, the homeless, voters with disabilities and those who need language assistance all use in-person voting more heavily.</p><p><p style="text-align: center;"><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>Unfortunately, in primary after primary this spring, election officials have restricted or interfered with in-person voting, particularly in urban areas. </p><p>For Wisconsin's primary, Milwaukee slashed the number of polling locations open April 7 down to just five — down from 180. While turnout across the rest of the state dropped 4 percent from the 2016 presidential primary, turnout in the state's largest city dropped 37 percent. </p><p>Before Pennsylvania's primary June 2, Philadelphia eliminated 600 voting sites, citing poll worker shortages. A curfew that cut into voting hours was lifted only hours before polls opened. Turnout in the city dropped by 30 percent compared to 2016, six times the rate across the rest of the state. </p><p>During the April 9 primary in Georgia, thousands of voters in Atlanta were forced to wait in hours-long lines. Two weeks later in Kentucky, election officials opened just one in-person location in each county, causing concern about the potential for long lines impacting citizens voting in person especially in Louisville and Lexington, the state's most urban and diverse places. </p><p>Without preparation, we'll see the same dysfunction play out across the country 13 weeks from now. To ensure that voters are protected this fall, state and local officials must prepare now. Here are the most important four steps to take.</p><p><strong>Keep neighborhood polling locations open.</strong> Closing polls creates longer lines, bigger crowds and higher risks. Officials should commit not to close polls and consolidate voting, which disproportionately impacts voters in urban areas. The vast majority of the country's Election Day voting places are multi-functional locations and the majority are controlled by local governments. </p><p>Election officials should begin planning now to reconfigure or relocate these locations and ensure all have access to cleaning supplies, hand sanitizer and protective materials. States and localities should also expand curbside voting, allowing voters in need to stay in their cars.</p><p><strong>Recruit, train and protect new poll workers. </strong>This is a watershed moment to invite new generations to fill a critical civic role, including some of the millions of Americans who have joined peaceful protests. But we have to start asking now. </p><p>This spring, the coronavirus led to massive shortages of poll workers, and a <a href="https://www.eac.gov/documents/2017/11/15/eavs-deep-dive-poll-workers-and-polling-places" target="_blank">2017 report</a> found that most jurisdictions already struggled to recruit the workers needed. In the last presidential election, more than half of the country's 918,000 poll workers were older than 60. Election officials need to create simple online sign-up portals for volunteers and expanded partnerships, like Adopt-a-Precinct, that allow businesses and nonprofits to recruit. Schools should allow high school and college students to take the day off to serve. Jurisdictions should relax or eliminate service requirements that bar otherwise qualified individuals. Poll workers need to be properly trained and provided with protective equipment.</p><p><strong>Expand early voting.</strong> A straightforward way to protect in-person voting is to spread out the period of time when voters can cast their ballots. In 40 states, voters may already vote early, but the days and hours vary widely. Wherever possible, state and counties should expand early voting to include multiple weeks in October. </p><p>To accommodate working Americans, local jurisdictions should expand voting into evening hours and, to the greatest extent possible, allow early voting on both Saturday and Sunday in the final weekends before Election Day. In urban areas, communities should demand early voting sites in neighborhoods — not just central, downtown locations. Rural officials should also look closely at how best to ensure broad access.</p><p><strong>Communicate clearly and repeatedly that voting is safe.</strong> Elected officials and voting rights groups must repeatedly assure the public that voting will be safe and secure. We've already seen Covid-19 weaponized as this year's voter suppression tactic of choice. Failure to clearly communicate will undermine public confidence and leave the door open to disinformation.</p><p>As America prepares for national elections in the middle of a pandemic, the strength of our democracy will be measured by how well we uphold the voting rights of the vulnerable. Do we allow the coronavirus to deepen existing disparities in voter turnout or do we plan and prepare to include everyone? To help ensure that all jurisdictions can afford to run a safe election, Congress should approve the $3.6 billion in aid that has already passed the House.</p><p>By acting now, in communities across the country, we can disrupt old patterns of disenfranchisement and make our elections more fair and free.</p>
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Black Voters Matter Co-founder Cliff Albright on Amplifying the Black Vote
Jul 27 2020
Organizer: Leadership Now Project
Join us for a briefing with Cliff Albright, Co-Founder and Executive Director at Black Voters Matter Fund, one of our 2020-II Portfolio organizations. BVM received national attention in 2017 when they helped mobilize Black voters during the U.S. Senate race between Doug Jones and Roy Moore. In 2018, Albright and the BVM team travelled throughout seven southern states in "The Blackest Bus in America" energizing voters and exposing voter suppression. We will discuss their voter registration effort March on Ballot Boxes (M.O.B.B), the power of relational organizing, and ways to fight back against the voter suppression they have seen already in primary elections across the U.S.
Location: Webinar
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Voting should be a mandate, not just a right, think tanks say
Jul 20 2020
Americans shouldn't just have the right to vote, they should be required to, a group of prominent policy thinkers proposed Monday.
To be precise, the report calls for a mandate on participation in elections — because citizens would be allowed to leave their ballot blank or vote for none of the above.
<p>The proposal, "<a href="https://www.brookings.edu/research/lift-every-voice-the-urgency-of-universal-civic-duty-voting/" target="_blank">Lift Every Voice: the Urgency of Universal Civic Duty Votin</a>g," was issued by a group formed by two prominent think tanks, the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at the Harvard Kennedy School and the Brookings Institution.</p><p>Among the 27 members are prominent liberal columnist E.J. Dionne of Brookings and the Washington Post, who was co-chairman, and Norman Ornstein with the conservative American Enterprise Institute.</p><p>The report argues that requiring people to vote could help reverse the downward spiral of declining trust that "breeds citizen withdrawal which in turn only further increases the sense of distance between citizens and our governing institutions."</p><p><p style="text-align: center;"><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>But instituting mandatory voting will be no mean trick. Polling done as part of the report shows that nearly two-thirds of Americans oppose the idea and nearly half are strongly opposed.</p><p>The report notes that while voter turnout increased dramatically in the 2018 midterm election, the percentage of those eligible who cast ballots has stayed pretty consistent over recent decades: 57 percent for presidential elections and 41 percent for off-year elections.</p><p>By contrast, in the approximately two dozen countries that require voting, turnout is upward of 80 to 90 percent.</p><p>Australia, which mandated voting in 1924, is the country most highlighted in the report because it's the biggest democracy with such a requirement. People there face a fine — about $14 in U.S. dollars — for not showing up at the polls. Still, only about 13 percent of those who don't vote end up paying a fine. The report argues the mandate leads people to take the voting obligation more seriously and has turned Election Day into a day of celebration in Australia.</p><p>Mandating people to participate in elections but not mandating that they vote is a key distinction in ensuring the change would pass constitutional muster, the report states. That's because case law is clear that the government cannot mandate speech, which is how requiring voting for particular candidates could be interpreted.</p><p>A tougher nut to crack than passing constitutional challenges would appear to be public attitudes.</p><p>Besides asking about whether voting should be mandated, pollsters also asked about general attitudes toward voting: 61 percent said they believe voting is both a right and a duty, while 34 percent said it was merely a right and the remainder said it was neither.</p><p>The authors see hope in those numbers when confronted with the large margins who reject mandatory voting with a modest $20 fine for those who fail to vote.</p><p>They also note that young people appear to be more open to the reform.</p><p>In addition to recommending mandatory participation, the report also makes several recommendations:</p><ul class="ee-ul"><li>Excluding partisan primaries from the mandate.</li><li>Providing incentives for people to vote, including tax credits, lower public fees and lotteries.</li><li>Creating a public education campaign.</li><li>Increasing funding for election administration.</li><li>Setting federal standards for elections.</li><li>Restoring the Voting Rights Act.</li></ul><p>The authors emphasize that they don't see mandatory voting as a panacea for all that ails our democracy. But they conclude that "it can help rejuvenate our civic culture and expand confidence in our democratic system."</p>
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Virtual Gen Z and Millennial Votes Matter Training
Jul 17 2020
Organizer: Transformative Justice Coalition and North Carolina NAACP
The Transformative Justice Coalition, in partnership with the North Carolina NAACP, is hosting a non-partisan interactive virtual Gen Z and Millennial Votes Matter Training event. This effort will prepare 50 persons, 18-35 years old, from North Carolina, Georgia, Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi, to serve as Voting Rights Ambassadors to directly serve vulnerable communities and voters by enhancing their ability to participate in the 2020 Presidential Elections. This Training will use a proven and successful specially designed "Train the Trainer" Voting Rights Immersion Program which will teach fundamentals of voting rights and develop skills for conducting voter registration, voter education, voter assistance for obtaining IDs, voter mobilization, voter turnout and voter protection. This Virtual Gen Z and Millennial Votes Matter Training will enhance the leadership skills of talented students and young community leaders to work in coalition with voting rights and civic participation organizations to register thousands of voters, conduct voter education forums, teach voters to navigate barriers to voting, assist in obtaining voter IDs, help voters to the polls, and protect voters who encounter problems voting.
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All participants will receive a $50 per day stipend for attending and completing the work plan. There will also be assigned homework prior to the event. You must attend all 3 days, 3 hours each day with an optional certificate ceremony on August 6, and complete all assignments.
Location: Virtual
