Democrats, unions redouble push to move NLRB elections online
Politico
The agency is risking the lives of workers and of its own staff by mandating that voters show up in-person mid-pandemic, they say.
By ELEANOR MUELLER
07/16/2020 06:49 PM EDT
Democrats and unions are stepping up pressure on the National Labor Relations Board to conduct its elections electronically to avoid the risks of in-person voting during the pandemic but are clashing with conservatives warning about fraud mirroring the debate in the presidential race.
The NLRB, which oversees the elections that determine whether workers may form unions, is forbidden from collecting votes electronically by language included in every congressional appropriations bill since 2012. Now, as social distancing requirements continue to jeopardize in-person voting, labor groups want Congress to delete that language from fiscal 2021 spending packages and direct the agency to form its own electronic election system.
Republicans and right-to-work groups counter that conducting elections electronically opens the door to fraud and coercion on the part of labor organizations, echoing a charge that President Donald Trump has leveled at efforts to expand mail-in voting in the November election.
snip
more at link