We know that coronavirus will depress voter turnout. We also know that voting from home is the safest way to vote for voters and election workers. But the lack of awareness of voting by mail and the lack of confidence in both USPS and ballot processing will also depress the vote. Together with Dan Janowski, I've written and submitted the Voting Safely Act to Governor Murphy and Speaker Coughlin. At 41 pages, it covers key things we need for the Primary Election in July.
The list of what's in the bill is rather long, but the key components are:
Makes Vote By Mail easier for voters by eliminating the need to apply, which in turn makes it easy for election workers since they won't have to process those applications. The elimination of this requirement saves a lot of time and dollars but also affect many of the revised statutes that need to be repealed or amended, making the bulk of the bill.
Gives voters options to vote (mail, delivery, drop off, provisional ballot, machine)
Establishes new unstaffed secure drop boxes
Provides extended voting days in order for the election workers to mitigate the time it will take for voters to vote under COVID-19 conditions
Provides COVID-19 compliant guidelines as provided by the CDC for polling places and for workplace ballot processing to protect election workers
And if not all can be implemented, I recommended to focus on the critical components:
Notice of Elections and Voter Education - lack of knowledge, awareness, and confidence in the voting system is hugely suppressive in voter turn out
Mail-in ballot drop boxes and Mail-in drop off locations - When 75% of Colorado's votes and 47% of Washington's votes are received through secure unstaffed ballot drop boxes, not having these will suppress voter turn out
Determination of and Safety Guidelines for Polling Places to prevent exposure to COVID-19 - not having in-person locations to vote will suppress the vote amongst communities of color, people with sight and writing deficiencies, others where English skill deficiencies, and other vulnerable communities BUT these places must have COVID-19 compliant measures
Extended in-Person Voting Days are needed to handle the time needed for voters to vote (and for election workers to safely process) and having just voting on Election Day will mean turning away voters
It's a hefty bill with 41 pages covering elections during COVID-19.
You can check out the recommendations on our website VoteByMailNJ.org and please share it using the social share icons. Let's educate. Because lack of awareness, fear, and lack of confidence will mean more people at the polls putting our election workers and ourselves at risk AND fewer people will vote using Vote By Mail. I will be updating this, especially the COVID-19 compliant polling stations.
Today is #GivingTuesdayNow - a day to come together & help communities that are disproportionately impacted. While we failed to get any grants for our safe voting work, our work continues because COVID-19 does not care and will continue to be a major health risk for all of us. OUR WORK: To change how we conduct elections here in New Jersey so that voters and poll workers, who are majority seniors, can be safe. https://atnjef.org/donate/
Funders nationwide are funding frontline workers and food banks, both we desperately need. No one is funding the work of our elections system. We are running a #GivingTuesdayNow fundraiser so we can continue to educate people on vote by mail and to keep working on the legislation. Please chip in what you can. It's really appreciated.
