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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsElections in the Era of COVID-19 How we can vote without killing ourselves -- and ensure every vote
counts!
https://www.gregpalast.com/elections-in-the-era-of-covid-19/
April 2, 2020
Greg Palast and Nicole Powers for Igniting Change
COVID-19 has caused eleven states to reschedule their elections. Several more are still scheduled to be held this month. As states attempt to figure out how to safely run elections in the midst of a coronavirus pandemic, many see voting by mail as the solution, but there are pitfalls.
In this interview with civil rights leader and Igniting Change host Barbara Arnwine, first broadcast on NewsTalk 1450 FM on March 31, investigative journalist Greg Palast says that rather than creating a precedent for cancelling elections, we should embrace mail-in ballots so we can vote without the risk of dying. However, he also explains that we need to make urgent changes to our voting system to make sure every mail-in ballot counts and breaks down what those essential changes are.
SNIP
Arnwine: What should people be doing? What should people in the legislators in their states be doing to remove barriers that are created by vote by mail? What are some of the things that we should all be advocating for right now?
Palast: We have to get rid of any requirement by those six or eight states that you have a witness or that you actually have to have the ballot notarized. If 40 states in America can do without witnesses and notarization, why cant this handful who make it ridiculously difficult to vote and even force people to break the quarantine to be able to vote. Those requirements are simply to stop voter impersonation fraud and theres literally been four cases in the past decade out of a billion votes cast and they were not mail-in ballots. So its ridiculous, its to stop a fraud that doesnt happen.
In addition, some states like Wisconsin and others, require voters to mail in a photocopy of their ID. Understand, Kinkos is closed, so if you dont have access to a printer, its impossible to comply. And you have to right ID. Going back to the key swing state of Wisconsin, they have 182,000 students in the University of Wisconsin system. You have to have a state photo ID to vote in Wisconsin, the University of Wisconsin photo ID does not qualify for voting. They said, students can simply go into their Deans office to get the voter ID. But, guess what? The schools are closed. So voter ID is obviously a new Jim Crow tactic, because we dont have people impersonating others. There should be no requirements in any state to mail in an ID or a copy of an ID. If people sign a ballot under penalty of perjury and they lie about it, thats five years in prison. Thats one of the reasons people dont do it,
The third thing is that no one should be denied a ballot because they are on the so-called inactive list. According to the National Voter Registration Act of 1993, you cant lose your vote for not voting. Its called the failure to vote clause. They are deliberately violating this law in Ohio and a lot of other states Georgias announced theyre going to do the same thing by saying that if youre on the inactive list, you dont get a ballot even if you requested it.
No one should be denied a ballot because theyre on an active list. No one whos been supposedly purged in the last two years should be denied a ballot. Those are the things that we should put in the law to begin with.
The other thing is eliminate things like exact signature match. We have this crazy business in about half the states were when you send in your mail-in ballot, they check your signature against your registration signature, and some partisan official says, oh, that matches or that doesnt match.
SNIP
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audio interview at same link
Bernardo de La Paz
(48,937 posts)If any election measure makes sense, No Responsibility Donny is against it.
diva77
(7,629 posts)has been exposing for years are removed.
Hermit-The-Prog
(33,236 posts)SoCalDem
(103,856 posts)handled with kid gloves..
and the extra cherry on top, is that it messes with their numbers
diva77
(7,629 posts)Altho. your idea is appreciated , it's a no for me --