Elections in a Pandemic: The Crisis Response Should Be Permanent Policy

The best way to keep people safe during this election season is also the best way to maximize participation: give people the widest possible range of opportunities to register and to vote, advocates Ash Center’s Miles Rapoport and Cecily Hines.

Sgt. Monica Miggins, a Soldier with the 1158th Transportation Company out of Beloit, Wis., sanitizes a voter’s hands before he enters a polling station in Fitchburg, Wis., April 7, 2020. More than 2,400 Citizen Soldiers and Airmen were mobilized to state active duty to assist as poll workers in the state’s election. Wisconsin National Guard Photo by Spc. Emma Anderson

Wisconsin’s elections earlier this month were a stark lesson on how not to organize voting in a crisis. Courageous voters came out, defying and defeating the crude efforts at voter suppression. But the administrative confusion, conflicting judicial decisions, and changing messages to voters all contributed to an election nightmare. This mess should never be allowed to happen again, during this crisis or in the future.

As governors, election officials, and legislatures scramble to make plans for this November, the steps they need to take to run elections safely in a pandemic should also be a roadmap, and major accelerant, to reforms that are moving us, slowly and unevenly, in the direction of increased participation. The best way to keep people safe during this election season is also the best way to maximize participation: give people the widest possible range of opportunities to register and to vote.

↗ ️Read the full article on Dissent Magazine