A huge surge in voting by mail is coming whether states prepare for it or not
The first test of New York’s recovery will come in an industry that’s beenNew Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver jokingly referred to Kim Wyman, her counterpart from Washington state, as “the most popular girl at the dance right now,” saying the longtime Washington elections official has been indispensable to others trying to rapidly accomodate more voting by mail.
Some states are taking legislative steps to expand mail-in voting in their state and otherwise protect voters from the virus. Virginiaafter Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam signed a series of voting access laws in mid-April, which were already making their way through the state legislature before the pandemic.
Other states are making temporary changes. The secretary of state and attorney general in New Hampshire, which requires voters to provide an excuse to vote absentee, co-authored a memo announcing that they would treat concern over coronavirus as a valid excuse in this year’s elections.“Voters should not have to choose between their health and exercising their constitutional right to vote,”But there are gradations of preparedness, even among no-excuse absentee ballot states.
Michigan and Pennsylvania, two of the most important 2020 presidential battlegrounds, are also two of the states at greatest risk of a Wisconsin-like failure — where voters reportedbut never received them — come November, said Amber McReynolds, CEO of the nonprofit Vote at Home Institute and the former director of elections for Denver, Colo., during the state’s transition to vote by mail.
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