How we protect the vote during the pandemic: analysis and insight from Brennan Center experts

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The Briefing

We hope you and yours are holding up in these grave and unsettling times. First and foremost, we’re thinking about all those in our community who are at risk.

The pandemic has revealed core weaknesses in American government — inadequate investment in public health and education, deep polarization, and the damage wreaked by the White House. We’re focused on the ways this interacts with our work in voting, in emergency powers, in criminal justice, and more.

We’ve never had to run an election beset by a public health emergency of this magnitude. But we’ve had to cast ballots amid crisis and disruption before. In 1864, during the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln was determined to maintain free elections, even though he believed he might lose. “We cannot have free government without elections; and if the rebellion could force us to forgo, or postpone a national election it might fairly claim to have already conquered and ruined us,” he said.

With the same spirit, we can make sure this devastating pandemic does not undermine our democracy.
Democracy

Protecting Voters and the Vote

Last night, Ohio’s health director shut down the state’s primary, but voters are casting ballots today in Arizona, Florida, and Illinois. Already Louisiana, Kentucky, and Georgia have postponed their primaries. New York announced it may do the same. More complications will surely come.

The presidential general election date, however, is set by federal statute, and it can’t (and should not) be changed. But state and federal officials can take specific steps to make sure all eligible people get to vote in the primaries and in November.

My colleague Wendy Weiser and I wrote about it in an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times

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Our key point:
“This pandemic does not have an end date. But there’s time to reduce risks if Congress and state legislatures act now. Quick and concerted action, backed by a significant infusion of federal resources, is needed to ensure that COVID-19 does not prevent millions from voting in November — a situation this country must avoid at all costs. Even for states with primaries in May or June, there’s still time to put in place flexible electoral procedures that allow for safer voting methods.”

Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Ron Wyden (D-OR), and others will shortly introduce emergency legislation to save the vote in states. Our new policy proposal, How to Protect the 2020 Vote from the Coronavirus, has recommendations that include a push for wider online voter registration, extended deadlines, and a move to make vote-by-mail universally available while retaining in-person voting. // Read More

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Constitution

Emergency Powers in a Real Emergency

Then there is the risk of abuse of power that comes with crisis. My colleague Liza Goitein published this piece in the Atlantic on Trump’s use of emergency powers — this time in a real, recognized emergency, as opposed to the phony crisis of the border wall.

She opens by posing the question, “When a president with autocratic tendencies invokes emergency powers, red flags start to wave. Should we be encouraged by the president’s action — or deeply worried?” Then she walks through the powers he invoked and what he proposes to do under them. Today the health emergency demands the government take decisive, often unthinkable action.

That’s just when we need to be alert. // THE ATLANTIC

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Justice

The Virus Threatens Those Behind Bars

And, of course, the pandemic especially puts at risk those caught in the criminal justice system. Please see our sobering interview with Dr. Homer Venters, the author of Life and Death on Rikers Island, on how the coronavirus could affect jails and prisons in the United States. // Read More

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News
Lauren-Brooke Eisen on labor in private prisons // KUNR
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Elizabeth Goitein on presidential emergency powers and the coronavirus // New York Times
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Young Mie Kim on Russia-linked social media posts attempting to interfere in the 2020 election // New York Times
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Rachel Levinson-Waldman on the tension between public safety and privacy erosion // Coindesk
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Lawrence Norden on the New York Supreme Court’s striking down of the state’s Public Campaign Finance Commission // Albany Times Union
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Yurij Rudensky on redistricting after the 2020 census // City & State
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Jennifer Weiss-Wolf on gender equity in a time of pandemic // NEWSWEEK
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Have an issue you'd like us to cover? Feedback on this newsletter? Email us at [email protected]
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The Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law is a nonpartisan law and policy institute that works to reform, revitalize – and when necessary defend – our country’s systems of democracy and justice.

Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law

120 Broadway, Suite 1750
New York, NY 10271
T 646 292 8310
F 212 463 7308

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