By Tanya Wilkinson
Can the United States conduct a safe election in November? Unfortunately, what we saw in the 2020 primaries was not encouraging. In April, state courts forced Wisconsin to go forward with an in-person election, siding with the GOP over the objections of the Democratic governor. According to the Atlantic, “dozens of COVID-19 cases were linked to that election, and the Wisconsin experience helped galvanize a nationwide movement toward expanded voting by mail that Trump has ferociously opposed and denigrated.”
In general, the coronavirus has severely disrupted elections held since March 2020. According to the Brookings institute: “State voting systems were overwhelmed by long lines, an influx of absentee ballot requests, and technology issues.”
Clearly the safest and most secure way to vote in a pandemic is by absentee ballot, whether that ballot is then mailed in, placed in a designated collection bin or dropped off at a polling place. Given that voting regulations and processes vary widely from state to state, how can the ease of mail voting be assessed?
In the same article cited above the Brookings Institute rated each of the 50 states, and Washington, D.C., on factors that impact both the ease and safety of voting, such as requesting, completing, and submitting a mail-in ballot. In this analysis of what states are doing now to expand access and improve the process of voting by absentee ballot, or via a universal vote-by-mail system, 22 factors were considered. Each state was given a score that indicates both how safe it will be to vote in those states and how clear the process will be to voters. This is an especially crucial issue in the swing states, which are generally accepted to be: Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, and Wisconsin.
Of these swing states, only Ohio and Nevada, with 15 positive factors or more out of 22, can be seen as doing an adequate job of providing voters with a clear, safe election process. North Carolina and Pennsylvania with 10 and Michigan with 12 out of 22 factors, are on the borderline between safe and unsafe. Florida and Wisconsin both have 8 or fewer of the 22 factors that the Brookings Institute assessed. This indicates that those crucial states are doing very little to support voters in safely exercising their franchise.
What are Airlift groups doing in those swing states to help all eligible voters navigate the system and vote safely? According to Newsweek: “Before the pandemic many organizers were focused on preparations for the census and voter registration. When Covid 19 took hold they were forced to abandon those efforts in the short term.” Transforming themselves into community service outlets, many Airlift groups offered food and financial assistance resources to people in need. “These same groups are now using the relationships they built during one of the most difficult periods in American history to ask voters of color for their votes.”
For example, in the Airlift group One Pennsylvania, staff pivoted from door-knocking and showing up at popular events to handing out Clorox wipes, masks, Lysol, and even delivering diapers and toilet paper. Using the goodwill and community awareness built from these actions the group began to expand its canvassing for the upcoming election.
Also in Pennsylvania, PA Stands Up is proposing reforms that will greatly improve the safety of voting, calling upon the Pennsylvania legislature and County Boards of Election to take action immediately to:
Send every registered voter a paper mail in ballot request form
Provide paid postage for returning ballots
Adequately promote vote by mail options, changes to in-person voting locations
Seek procurement of ballot counting machines, additional temporary staff for counting
Create more (and more equitable) drop-boxes for in person ballot drop off
Satellite offices for full service voting
Recruit more poll workers and obtain PPE and other safety equipment
Require County Boards of Elections to begin tallying ballots as soon as they are received
In Florida, Airlift supported group Black Voters Matter has “launched radio advertisements and a voter outreach caravan to engage Black voters and drive voter turnout. The voter outreach caravans, led by 15-passenger vans, will canvass major metropolitan areas in the South and Midwest.”
By focusing on Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Tennessee, the Black Voters Matter Fund (BVMF) is supporting safe voting in crucial swing states, as well as in states with marked histories of voter suppression. BVMF will also be rolling out additional events, tools, and resources in the weeks leading up to Election Day. In October, it will launch a digital public service announcement instructing voters in 11 states on how to fill out their ballots.
In Wisconsin, grassroots organizers, including the Airlift-supported group Black Leaders Organizing Communities (BLOC), initiated and won a significant legal victory when a federal court ordered the Wisconsin Election Commission to ensure that voters have safe and equitable access to cast ballots during the November general election, thus avoiding a repetition of the life threatening primary election in April. According to ProtectDemocracy.org: “The Court, among other things, extended the deadline for receipt of absentee ballots until Nov. 9 for all mailed ballots postmarked on or before Nov. 3, which had been the deadline for receipt of ballots; extended the deadline for online and mail-in registration by one week, to October 21; allowed election officials to email ballots to voters who request them but don’t receive them in the mail; and allowed Wisconsinites to serve as poll workers outside of their counties of residence, to help the threat of a poll worker shortage.”
By educating voters, fighting for supportive legislation, lobbying election officials, and providing practical support, Airlift groups are making it safer to vote during the pandemic. Support this important work by donating here.