Dear Friend,

Tomorrow, voters in Kentucky’s largest county will go to the polls for the
primary to select the Democratic candidate to run against Mitch McConnell.

There will be just a single polling place open in the entire county to
accommodate them.^1

This is set up to be the worst voting disaster of the 2020 primaries,
blocking tens of thousands of people from being able to complete their
ballots. And if Republicans get away with it, they will go even further to
suppress the vote in November.

[ [link removed] ]We're running out of time to pass vote by mail, and if we don’t,
November’s election could be undermined. Will you donate to Demand
Progress’ emergency campaign to pass vote-by-mail legislation?

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Tomorrow is an incredibly important primary. Not only are the Democrats
deciding who will take on McConnell in November, but McConnell has more
than a dozen Republican challengers.^2 These factors should cause high
turnout. But it’s likely that many residents won’t be able to cast their
votes.

Kentucky typically has 3,700 polling places. Tomorrow, they will only have
200. Jefferson County, home to Louisville and half of Kentucky's Black
residents, only has one polling place for more than 600,000 registered
voters.

Concerned about the lack of polling places, voting rights experts begged
Kentucky to do something about it, but the state failed. The secretary of
state urged residents to vote by mail, and nearly one million people
requested ballots—but now the Board of Elections is reporting that the
wrong ballot was sent out in many cases.^3

Meanwhile, a close race between Amy McGrath and Charlie Booker for the
Democratic Senate nomination is drawing people to the polls—and one county
clerk says he is expecting “an angry mob,” with hours-long lines in the
Kentucky summer heat.^4

Voter suppression is rampant now that the coronavirus can be used as an
excuse. In just the last three months, here’s what we’ve seen:

* A last-minute Supreme Court decision that stopped Wisconsin from
counting hundreds of thousands of absentee ballots after opening a
fraction of its polling places due to the coronavirus.^5
* Broken voting machines, hours-long lines, and lost absentee ballots in
Georgia.^6
* 80,000 voter registrations lost due to a computer “glitch” in
Maryland.^7
* A right-wing group in Pennsylvania fighting to purge 800,000 voters
before November.^8

And all of these suppression efforts disproportionately affect people of
color and impoverished communities.^9

Our country needs a nationwide, well-funded, equal opportunity
vote-by-mail process. If Congress doesn’t act now, five states won’t let
voters request absentee ballots to avoid the coronavirus even if the virus
is the reason for fewer polling places, and even more states will see a
repeat of Georgia and Wisconsin.

There’s no way around it: Without nationwide vote-by-mail, we cannot rely
on the fairness of our election process this November.

[ [link removed] ]Demand Progress has organized more than 100,000 people to demand that
Congress pass emergency vote-by-mail legislation. Will you rush a donation
today to help ensure a fair election in November?

For our democracy,

Robert Cruickshank,
Demand Progress

[ [link removed] ]DONATE

 

Sources:
1. The Washington Post, "Kentucky braces for possible voting problems in
Tuesday’s primary amid signs of high turnout," [ [link removed] ]June 19, 2020
2. Courier Journal, "Kentucky field different for Mitch McConnell and
Democrats in 2020 Senate race," [ [link removed] ]January 10, 2020
3. The Washington Post, "Kentucky braces for possible voting problems in
Tuesday’s primary amid signs of high turnout," [ [link removed] ]June 19, 2020
4. The Independent, "‘It’s going to be an angry mob’: Kentucky cuts number
of polling stations by 95 percent ahead of primary voting," [ [link removed] ]June 22,
2020
5. PBS, "‘Voter Suppression At Its Finest’: Wisconsin Citizens Say Missing
Ballots, Lines and Coronavirus Kept Them from Being Counted in Election,"
[ [link removed] ]April 13, 2020
6. The Nation, "Georgia Shows How Serious the Threat of Voter Suppression
Will Be This November," [ [link removed] ]June 10, 2020
7. The Baltimore Sun, "Maryland voter registration snafu affects 80,000,
four times as many as initially announced," [ [link removed] ]June 25, 2020
8. The Intercept, "Right-wing group seeks to purge up to 800,000 voters in
Pennsylvania, a key battleground state," [ [link removed] ]May 28, 2020
9. Time, "Voter Suppression Is Still One of the Greatest Obstacles to a
More Just America," [ [link removed] ]June 12, 2020
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