Explainer: Why vote by mail triggered a partisan battle ahead of
November's election
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[April 14, 2020]
By John Whitesides and Julia Harte
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The drive to expand
vote-by-mail options during the coronavirus pandemic has emerged as the
centerpiece of a growing political fight ahead of November's election.
President Donald Trump and his Republican allies have attacked the idea
of expanding mail balloting, arguing it is vulnerable to fraud and
openly worrying that easier voting would hurt their party's chances in
November.
Democrats and voting rights groups say it is a way to protect voters
from the deadly virus, and that a failure to guarantee that option amid
a pandemic will disenfranchise millions of Americans, especially the
poor and African Americans who are deemed more vulnerable to the virus
and who tend to vote Democratic.
Last week's turbulent Wisconsin elections, which went ahead after
Republicans blocked Democratic efforts to delay in-person voting and
expand absentee balloting, illustrated the partisan divide - and the
mounting urgency to find a solution before the Nov. 3 U.S. election.
Here are key issues surrounding the vote-by-mail debate.
WHAT'S BEHIND REPUBLICAN OPPOSITION?
Republicans say voting by mail is more susceptible to fraud since voters
do not have to appear in person at a polling place.
"Mail ballots are a very dangerous thing for this country because
they're cheaters. They go and collect them. They're fraudulent in many
cases," Trump told a recent coronavirus briefing, without providing
evidence. He acknowledged he cast an absentee ballot by mail last month
in Florida's Republican primary.
But Trump also voiced what Democrats believe is the prime motivation for
opposing vote by mail: It will lead to a higher turnout that hurts
Republican candidates.
Trump told Fox News a shift to making voting easier would mean "you'd
never have a Republican elected in this country again."
Trevor Potter, a Republican former chairman of the Federal Election
Commission who founded the Washington-based Campaign Legal Center, said
Trump's reaction was puzzling since Republicans often do well in mail-in
balloting.
"Polls show older Americans, those thought to be most vulnerable to the
virus, are more likely to support President Trump than other voters,"
Potter said, adding conservative Utah is one of five states that has
gone to all-mail voting with little sign of fraud.
IS FRAUD REALLY A CONCERN?
A series of academic, government and news investigations over the years
have found little evidence of election fraud of any kind. Utah and four
other states that vote entirely by mail - Hawaii, Oregon, Washington and
Colorado - have reported little fraud.
Trump, who has often said without evidence that millions voted illegally
in 2016, formed a commission after the campaign to investigate. It
disbanded in January 2018 without finding any evidence to back up his
allegations.
Election experts say there have been scattered incidents of people
collecting and manipulating absentee ballots in a process known as
"ballot harvesting."
The most recent example came in a 2018 North Carolina congressional
race, the outcome of which was overturned when it was determined an
operative gathered ballots for the Republican candidate.
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An election worker places a mail-in ballot into an election box at a
drive-through drop off location at the Registrar of Voters in San
Diego, California, U.S. November 5, 2018. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File
Photo
ARGUMENTS FOR VOTING BY MAIL?
More than a dozen states already have postponed primaries or
expanded vote by mail to avoid forcing residents to go to crowded
polling places.
Vote by mail is hardly a novelty. A report by the U.S. Election
Assistance Commission says the process was used by about one-quarter
of all voters in the 2018 midterm elections.
Along with the five states that vote entirely by mail, 28 states
will allow voters to request a mail ballot without any excuse in
November, according to the Brennan Center for Justice.
"We are not reinventing the wheel here. This is upscaling what is
already taking place," U.S. Senator Ron Wyden, co-sponsor with
fellow Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar of a bill to expand vote by
mail and early voting to all states, told reporters last week.
WHAT ARE THE HURDLES?
There are still 17 states such as Texas, New York and Louisiana that
would need to change their policies to guarantee that everyone who
wants to vote by mail in November can, the Brennan Center said.
It will be expensive. The Brennan Center estimated the cost of
ensuring that vote by mail was available for all voters could be up
to $1.4 billion, with postage alone costing up to $600 million.
Even advocates of vote by mail say states would need to keep the
option of in-person voting, for voters with disabilities, those who
need language access assistance or do not have regular mail access.
WHAT ARE THE KEY LEGAL BATTLES?
Democratic and Republican-aligned groups across the country are
already fighting in federal and state courts over whether and how to
expand access to mail-in voting.
On March 30, 27 New Mexico county clerks petitioned the state
Supreme Court to conduct their June 2 primary almost entirely by
mail and allow all voters to be mailed an absentee ballot. State
Republicans sued to oppose both changes.
In Texas, the Democratic Party sued the state's Republican
leadership in federal court on April 7 to allow no-excuse absentee
voting. Texas law requires voters to provide an excuse, such as
disability, when requesting an absentee ballot.
In Georgia, the American Civil Liberties Union sued the Republican
secretary of state last Wednesday in federal court for requiring
voters to pay their own postage when submitting mail-in absentee
ballots and applications, arguing that was tantamount to a poll tax.
(Reporting by John Whitesides and Julia Harte; Editing by Soyoung
Kim and Peter Cooney)
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