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Welcome to the Monday, April 13, Brew. Here’s what’s in store for you as you start your day:
- Join us to collect more information about local responses to the Coronavirus pandemic
- Coronavirus update: Changes to rent, mortgage, eviction, and foreclosure policies in response to the coronavirus pandemic
- Wisconsin voters request most absentee ballots in nearly a decade
Updates on stories related to the coronavirus outbreak are current through Sunday afternoon. Click here for the latest news.
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Share your local information during Ballotpedia’s Day of Service
We believe that sharing information is one way to help each other in this challenging time. Hundreds of thousands of governments across the country - and the world - have been coming up with different tactics to combat the coronavirus situation. One of the natural questions we have wondered - both as Ballotpedia staff and as citizens living through this - I’ve seen how my government is handling it, but how does that compare to others? What lessons can we learn from other communities?
This Friday—April 17—we’re asking our readers to join us in collecting more information about local government responses to the coronavirus pandemic. You can help us find one local response, two, or two hundred! It’s entirely up to you.
The Ballotpedia reader community is a powerful resource for gathering and distributing more information than our staff can do on its own. We hope to harness our readers’ insights and experiences from their own neighborhoods. I hope you will consider spending some time sharing information with us.
All you need to do to join us is a way to submit a Google form or contribute to a Google sheet—laptops, desktops, tablets, smartphones, all work if you have a reliable internet connection. If you aren’t sure how to work with Google sheets or forms, we’ll walk you through it.
Please click the button below register in advance. We’ll use your email address to contact you with more information as the date approaches. After the event, we’ll invite you to a virtual get-together with some of our staff so we can “meet” you and say thank you for your help.
We are grateful for any help you can provide, no matter how big or how small!
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Coronavirus update: Changes to rent, mortgage, eviction, and foreclosure policies in response to the coronavirus pandemic
Ballotpedia is providing comprehensive coverage on how the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is affecting America's political and civic life. Our coverage includes how federal, state, and local governments are responding, and the effects those responses are having on campaigns and elections.
State and local governments are implementing a range of policies affecting evictions and foreclosures in response to the pandemic.
Twenty-three governors have issued executive orders regarding evictions and foreclosures. Judicial branch changes also affect evictions and foreclosures. Here are five examples of how this has been playing out across the country.
- Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) and Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) issued executive orders suspending evictions and foreclosures through April 17 and April 30, respectively.
- In Alaska, Gov. Mike Dunleavy (R) issued an executive order suspending evictions for those who receive assistance from the state's Alaska Housing Finance Corporation.
- The Rhode Island State Judiciary issued an order closing all courts to non-emergency matters through May 17. Eviction proceedings were included in the order, and the court halted new filings or hearings until May 17.
- California's Judicial Council temporarily suspended evictions and foreclosures statewide for 90 days until after the state of emergency ended, but the order did not prohibit landlords from starting an eviction.
- A majority of states have suspended in-person court proceedings entirely, which includes eviction cases.
Some governments have implemented policies on the local level. Atlanta Mayor Keisha Bottoms temporarily suspended evictions and filings for 60 days. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti (D) issued an executive order that prohibited landlords from evicting residential tenants during the local emergency if the resident was able to demonstrate their inability to pay due to impact from the coronavirus.
Here are some other notable coronavirus-related updates since Friday's Brew:
- New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) announced that schools would be closed for the remainder of the academic year.
- The Kansas Supreme Court ruled April 10 that the Legislative Coordinating Council—a seven-member group made up of the state's legislative leaders from both parties—did not have the power to overrule Gov. Laura Kelly’s (D) executive order limiting religious gatherings to 10 individuals. The council had voted 5-2 along party lines April 8 to revoke Kelly's executive order regarding such gatherings.
- Texas Governor Greg Abbott (R) extended the state's disaster declaration April 12 for an additional 30 days. He originally declared a state of emergency on March 13. Abbott also announced April 10 that he planned to issue an executive order allowing businesses to reopen in a safe way.
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Wisconsin voters request most absentee ballots in nearly a decade
Results of Wisconsin’s spring elections are expected to be released today, April 13. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the deadline to return absentee ballots was extended from April 7, the day of the election, to today. Full results were delayed until the new absentee ballot return deadline, in accordance with a court order.
Sixty days after each state election, the Wisconsin Elections Commission releases a detailed breakdown of voting statistics, including details on absentee balloting. As we anticipate the results, today we’re looking at the state’s absentee ballot data for the past several election cycles.
This year, Wisconsin voters requested 1.29 million absentee ballots—the most since at least 2012. Here are some quick facts about absentee ballots in the state:
- Between 2012 and 2019, an average of 118,445 absentee ballots were sent out in each Wisconsin spring election.
- The year where the most ballots were sent was 2016 with 247,052, while the year with the least was 2014 with 67,917.
- An average of 82% of ballots were received in time to be counted, ranging from 92.22% in 2016 to 74.10% in 2019.
- Each year, fewer than 2% of absentee ballots were rejected.
- The year with the most rejections was 2016 with 1,629, while the year with the greatest percentage of rejections was 2012 with 1.81%.
- Across all eight spring elections, an average of 1.14% of those ballots completed on time were rejected.
For an absentee ballot to be valid, Wisconsin law requires that the voter sign a certificate in the ballot envelope. A witness must be present for completion of the ballot and also must provide their signature. A ballot that does not meet these requirements may be rejected. A ballot is not considered rejected if it was not delivered to the voter on time or if it was not returned on time. An absentee ballot is considered to be canceled rather than rejected if a voter is ruled ineligible or votes in-person.
The following chart will be updated following the release of a complete count of absentee ballots for 2020.
In addition to presidential primaries, a seat on the state Supreme Court and a ballot measure proposing an expansion of rights for crime victims were on the ballot this year.
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