Business Can Help Prevent Democracy from Becoming a COVID-19 Casualty
During its April 7 primaries, Wisconsin gave America an important lesson in what not to do when it comes to running an election during a global pandemic. Now the question is, how do we prevent this from happening on a national scale with disastrous consequences this November?
First, let’s recognize that it wasn’t difficult to predict how the coronavirus outbreak would affect the primary election. Poll workers quit to protect their health, forcing the closure of polling stations. Milwaukee, which usually operates 180 polling locations, was down to just five in-person voting sites. This in turn led to long lines, long waits, difficulty in social distancing, and lost votes. Also wishing to be safe, voters requested absentee ballots in record numbers. Unprepared for the surge, election officials sent many ballots late, including thousands not getting to voters in time to meet the April 7 deadline.
How can we know whether the outcome of this election represents the will of the people? How much further has this eroded Americans’ already dismal trust in our elections?
Also unsurprising was the Wisconsin political establishment’s conduct. Instead of decisive, proactive, bipartisan action before the election to protect public health, the issue became a political hot potato between the governor, legislature, and courts. After the election, predictably, the news is full of finger-pointing as partisans attempt to score political points against their opponents.
Ultimately the chaos stemmed from one root issue: a dysfunctional, polarized, hyper-partisan political system. This system disincentivizes elected leaders from working together to identify risks, overcome obstacles, and reach consensus on common-sense solutions so we can run safe, secure, and accessible elections — even during a public health crisis.
Political dysfunction and election chaos are bad for our businesses, employees, customers, communities, and country. Our lawmakers continually fail to make progress on critical issues we face as a country, even those with broad public consensus. If we are going to evolve our country to be more resilient to pandemics and other threats in the future, we cannot afford to have a broken government. And fixing the government starts with holding safe, secure, accessible elections that we all can trust.
It’s time for civic-minded business leaders across the nation to take a stand for safe, secure elections — starting with vote-by-mail and extended early voting.
Some states are doing the right thing. Eleven states and Puerto Rico have pushed back their primaries, and others have decided to conduct them with mail-in voting. But there is still a lot of work to do before the remaining primaries and general election.
Those of us in the business community have taken a leadership role on a wide variety of social issues. With the coronavirus crisis, we find ourselves seeking to preserve the wellbeing of our employees and communities. Now we all need to do our part to protect the health of our republic, too. Here’s our prescription for protecting public health while also protecting civic health:
1. Sign our business letter to lawmakers at bfa.us.
Beautycounter, Ben & Jerry’s, DSM North America, Eileen Fisher, and other businesses are urging Congress and state officials to fully fund the expansion of vote-by-mail to minimize in-person voting, extend early voting at the polling booth, and allow more time for ballot counting. The business community can help overcome the misconception that voting by mail is not secure and persuade lawmakers to take action by signing our letter.
2. Sign up for Time To Vote and boost voter turnout.
Educate your employees and communities about election deadlines and vote-by-mail options where you operate. Encourage your workforce and your community to participate to boost voter turnout.
3. Mobilize your employees to help.
Election administrators would love help from you and your employees to support voter registration, polling stations, and ballot counting operations. Election officials always face a challenge staffing the polls, and 2020 is likely to be worse than usual. Business for America is coordinating with companies to help election officials during elections (safely, of course).
We have no way of knowing what the state of COVID-19 will be come Election Day. Does the Wisconsin fiasco foreshadow our national reality in November if life in many parts of the country still have not returned to normal, or if the virus has an autumn resurgence? Or will this be our national wakeup call, spurring us to act swiftly by expanding vote-by-mail across the nation?
No one should have to choose between their health and their right to vote — and we have the means to ensure that doesn’t happen. Now we just need the political will. We invite you to Business for America and the civic-minded business community in fighting for elections we can trust.
