It may be true that planning for the fall election will not defeat the coronavirus, but it is a way of responding to it.
WASHINGTON — A Democratic senator who’s been pushing the country to prepare for the difficulties of holding a presidential election during an ongoing pandemic said he hopes pressure from outside Washington will convince Republicans to embrace expanding early voting and mail-in balloting.
Wyden pointed to Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican who pushed his state’s primary back and is weighing whether to go to an all-mail primary on June 2, a decision he’ll make in the coming days, a spokesman told Yahoo News. Yet Republican leaders in Washington view the Democratic proposals to expand ballot access as political schemes, even though the election this fall will occur at a time when many public health experts — including the president’s own advisers — expect a second wave of infections.
The rescue package signed into law a week ago included $400 million to help states prepare for a fall election that would see more ballots cast by mail, and for expanded early voting.House Democrats proposed $4 billion for the fall elections, and another proposal by Wyden and Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., was pegged at $2 billion, he said. That figure matches a cost estimate by the Brennan Center for Justice, a nonprofit advocacy group at New York University.
“Every registered voter is going to get one of these,” Ralston said. “This will certainly drive up turnout.”
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