Senator Warren Publishes Medium Post on Protecting Our Elections During Coronavirus Pandemic
Washington, D.C. - United States Senator Elizabeth Warren
(D-Mass.) published a Medium post today about how Congress must ensure our
elections can proceed safely and securely during the coronavirus pandemic. She
laid out four simple steps the government can take to protect the health and
safety of America's voters, ensure states are equipped with the resources they
need, and strengthen our electoral institutions for the long haul.
The full text of the Medium post is available here and below.
Medium Post:
Protecting Our Elections During the Coronavirus Pandemic
By Senator Elizabeth Warren
April 7. 2020
The coronavirus outbreak is not only a public health emergency and an
economic crisis - it also threatens our elections. Elections are foundational
to our democracy. But as federal, state, tribal, and local governments issue
stay-at-home orders and encourage residents to practice social distancing to
combat the virus, large-scale, in-person voting on Election Day could present
serious risks to public health. While many states have taken steps to postpone
primary elections or adopted policies - like online registration, early voting,
and vote by mail - to make it easier for eligible Americans to vote safely,
others are moving ahead with ill-advised plans that could accelerate the spread
of disease.
Our government needs to act immediately to make sure elections in the United
States can proceed safely, securely, and on time - even as this outbreak drags
on. But last week, Donald Trump asserted that if we made it easier for more
people to vote, "you'd
never have a Republican elected in this country again." And he's just
the latest in a string of right-wing politicians who have embraced efforts to
make it harder for people to vote - by closing
polling places, purging
millions of voters from voting rolls, limiting
early voting, and passing restrictive
voter identification laws. The Supreme Court smoothed the way for this
undemocratic agenda by defanging
the nation's signature voting rights law that protected
disenfranchised voters of color, disabled and language-minority voters, and
other vulnerable groups.
In times of crisis, when people's lives and livelihoods are on the line, it
is more important than ever that elected representatives are held accountable.
There is no room for partisanship when it comes to protecting the basic
machinery of our democracy. In the next coronavirus relief package that passes
Congress, Democrats and Republicans who respect our form of government must
take four simple steps to protect the health and safety of America's voters,
ensure states are equipped with the resources they need, and strengthen our
electoral institutions for the long haul.
First, we must ensure that all Americans can register to vote safely
and easily. This means not only preventing the pandemic from being
used as a cover for voter purges, but also restoring voter rolls and
accelerating opportunities for online registration.
In recent years, states like Wisconsin and Georgia have accelerated efforts
to remove hundreds of thousands of people unnecessarily from their voter
rolls. A Brennan
Center analysis estimated that at least 17 million voters were
purged nationwide between 2016 and 2018, and counties with a history of voter
discrimination purged voters at much higher rates . We must not allow
Republicans to exploit the pandemic to engage in voter suppression when people
are least equipped to fight back because they are staying home, caring for
loved ones, or struggling to make ends meet - and many government offices are
closed. Congress should ban states from purging their voter rolls
unless an individual affirmatively requests to be removed or there is objective
documentary evidence, such as an official record of death or affirmative change
of address. States should be banned from using
returned mail or a registered
voter's failure to participate in the election as an excuse to purge voters
from the rolls, and Congress should also require that states restore to the
rolls any voter whose name was removed since the current state of emergency was
declared.
Congress must also make sure registration is not a barrier to voting during
this crisis. Thirty-nine
states and the District of Columbia already offer online voter registration,
but Congress should require all states to offer this option, in 2020 and
beyond. States should also extend registration deadlines as much as practicable
to account for government office closures and other disruptions due to the
current pandemic - and all states should offer same-day registration.
Second, we must keep voters healthy by making the process of casting a
ballot easier and more accessible, including by giving everyone the option to
vote by mail and enhancing the safety of in-person voting.
One obvious way to protect public health during this emergency is to allow
- and encourage - Americans to submit ballots from home. Two-thirds
of states already offer no-excuse absentee voting. Senators
Klobuchar and Wyden have proposed the Natural
Disaster and Emergency Ballot Act of 2020, a bill to give every eligible
American the opportunity to vote by mail. The bill includes important
protections to ensure these ballots are submitted, counted, and tracked.
Congress should pass it immediately, and put in place protections to ensure
that individuals who vote by mail don't have their ballots discounted or thrown
out without justification. But Congress should also go further - by requiring
all states to mail every registered voter a ballot with pre-paid postage and a
self-sealing envelope, and mandating that they waive absentee ballot
requirements that undermine social distancing guidelines, such as requirements
that absentee voters submit copies of their IDs or include a notary or witness
signature with their mail-in ballot.
While badly needed, these reforms will put additional stress on the
already teetering United States Postal Service (USPS), which is on track to
run out of money within weeks. Congress must also
act swiftly to shore up USPS so that as many Americans as possible can vote
from home.
Online registration and voting by mail are important steps in protecting
voters during this pandemic, but those policies alone will not protect some of
the most vulnerable. States must also be prepared to assist these and any other
voters who need to vote in person. Many voters - including voters of color,
those in low-income communities, and people with disabilities - may face
greater obstacles to participating in elections from home. Some voters lack
access to mail service or reliable broadband, or require language or other
assistance to complete their ballot. Others may be required to isolate away
from home to care for a loved one or distance from a quarantined household
member.
And to accommodate voters while implementing social distancing and
heightened sanitation guidelines, all states should provide at least 30 days of
early voting. Congress should also require states to retain in-person
voting on Election Day, allow eligible individuals to vote with a sworn
statement of identity instead of a voter ID, and permit registered voters to
vote at any polling place within their district. To help prevent overcrowding
and promote social distancing, states should extend polling place hours. And in
order to protect seniors and others with underlying health conditions, a
pandemic is not the time to use nursing homes, retirement communities, or other
locations with a high concentration of vulnerable people as polling locations.
There are other, straightforward steps that Congress must require states to
take to ensure that all voters, regardless of race or ethnicity, language,
tribal citizenship, or ability have equal access to the ballot. Congress should
immediately pass the Voting
Rights Advancement Act and the Native
American Voting Rights Act, which are critical pieces of legislation to
restore and expand voting rights protections for vulnerable groups. And we should
go further by ensuring, for instance, that every polling place is equipped with
voting machines that are accessible for people with disabilities. States should
also be required to provide repeated, advance notice of any changes to
elections, including polling place closures or relocations, in multiple
languages and formats, including mail, email, text, call, and social and
traditional media outlets.
Third, we must protect the integrity of our elections during this time
of crisis by countering disinformation and bolstering election security. Disinformation
about the coronavirus is spreading
like wildfire, and China and Russia have already
begun to use the crisis to peddle false conspiracy theories and
further divide Americans. Russia interfered in our 2016 presidential election;
we must make sure that foreign actors and adversaries cannot use this moment of
crisis to undermine our elections.
We must spread the message now that Americans will have the opportunity to vote
safely in November. Social media platforms must redouble their efforts to
identify, prevent, and remove disinformation from their platforms, and alert
users affected by disinformation campaigns. And Congress must make sure that states
don't have to choose between protecting voters and securing voting systems.
This is particularly important as we make other needed reforms to our election
system, so that we can be confident in the integrity of the results. That's why
Congress should require that states put in place robust ballot tracking
tools to ensure voters can follow their ballot at every step, as well
as ensure that states institute post-election audits.
Last year, Congress approved
$425 million in funding for states to upgrade their election systems.
Election security advocates warned
that the amount was far too low for states to meet the threat to our election
systems. Now, even that funding may not be used for its intended purpose. The
Election Assistance Commission recently
announced that states could use funds that were supposed to go to
strengthening election infrastructure to pay for sanitation supplies related to
the coronavirus pandemic. Sanitation efforts are critical - but so is election
integrity. Congress must provide the necessary funding and resources states
desperately need to guard against foreign threats and protect voters,
election workers, and the public during the pandemic.
Finally, we must provide states the resources they need to administer
the vote and to keep poll workers safe. The single most important step
the federal government can take to protect our elections during this pandemic
is to provide immediate and adequate funding to states to make the changes
needed to ensure that every eligible American can vote. States generally foot
the bill for running elections, with limited funding from the federal
government. The coronavirus crisis is stretching states to the limit, and
without substantial funds dedicated to elections, states will struggle to make
the necessary adjustments to their election process.
The CARES Act provided
$400 million dollars in election grants to help states "prevent,
prepare for, and respond to coronavirus." That's a fraction of what it
will cost states to make the necessary reforms. Protecting our elections during
this public health emergency will require billions in funding, not millions.
With elections continuing across the country and states struggling to meet the
new demands imposed by this novel virus, Congress must move swiftly to fill the
gap in funding and provide no less than $4 billion to ensure that states have
the resources they need to successfully administer elections - while ensuring
these resources are used appropriately by conditioning funding on adopting
specific measures that will protect voters and reduce barriers to voting.
As states take steps to prepare for elections during a pandemic, they must also
focus on keeping poll workers safe. The Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC) has issued
guidance to help states prevent the spread of COVID-19 at polling places.
Recommendations include encouraging workers to stay home if they're sick or
experiencing symptoms that can be indicative of COVID-19, equipping polling
locations with sufficient supplies of soap and hand sanitizer, and
incorporating social distancing strategies like increasing the space between
voting booths and posting signs to encourage voters to stay at least 6 feet
apart. States should implement these guidelines, but Congress must do more.
Poll workers put themselves at increased risk to help keep our democracy
function. Every poll worker should be compensated for their work, and
Congress should guarantee that every poll worker receives hazard pay too.
The task of protecting our democracy has never been more vital. Americans
are struggling with the dual crises of a public health emergency and a looming
economic depression. Meanwhile, Republicans are using the crisis to accelerate
an undemocratic power grab and disenfranchise millions. Congress must act to
protect our upcoming elections, keep voters and poll workers safe, and safeguard
our electoral institutions for the long haul.
###
Next Article Previous Article
