Coronavirus raises the prospect of major disruption to American life—potentially including November’s elections. There is a way to guarantee that people get to vote without risking infection by standing in line with and touching surfaces that have been touched by hundreds of other people, though: states must adopt vote by mail. Now, Sen. Ron Wyden is introducing a bill to make that happen if coronavirus is causing disruptions into November or in other cases of pandemic or natural disaster.
“No voter should have to choose between exercising their constitutional right and putting their health at risk,” Wyden said. “When disaster strikes, the safest route for seniors, individuals with compromised immune systems or other at-risk populations is to provide every voter with a paper ballot they can return by mail or drop-off site. This is a nonpartisan, common-sense solution to the very real threat is looming this November.”
Wyden’s bill calls for $500 million of federal funding to help states prepare for voting disruptions and would allow all voters to vote by mail if 25% of states declared a coronavirus-related emergency. The bill calls for self-sealing envelopes so that people wouldn’t be licking things and sending them out to be handled by other people.
Currently, Colorado, Hawaii, Oregon, Utah, and Washington have full vote by mail, while many states allow no-excuse absentee voting by mail and a majority of votes in California and Arizona are cast by mail. But some states make things much harder in ways that aren’t great for democracy to begin with and could create major problems this year.
Since it will take time for states to ramp up their capacity to handle increased voting by mail, they need to start getting ready now, which is part of the point of Wyden’s bill. But of course, Republicans are threatened by the idea of making it easier to vote, to a degree that probably not even coronavirus will eradicate—they may even see it as an opportunity.