The senator from Oregon touts the advantages of mail-in voting, a program his state pioneered 20 years ago
As the coronavirus crisis upends elections in several states this primary season, Oregon’s U.S. senators want to take the state’s vote-by-mail model nationwide.
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) has introduced a bill that would make that option a requirement nationwide if 25% of states declare an emergency related to COVID-19, another infectious disease or a natural disaster. Under the Resilient Elections During Quarantines and Natural Disasters Act of 2020, governors who declare a state of emergency would also have discretion to enact the provisions of the measure in their state even if the 25% threshold isn’t met.
As of this week, 10 states or territories have postponed their primary elections because of the pandemic, The New York Times reported. Most of them were scheduled to hold primaries June 2.
Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) has praised Wyden’s push for states to use mail-in voting during a COVID-19 emergency.
In 2000, Oregon became the first state to conduct elections exclusively by mail. The ease of voting by mail is credited as one of the reasons Oregon consistently ranks well above the national average in voter turnout. Oregon’s voter turnout rate topped 80% in both the 2012 and 2016 presidential elections. Washington adopted vote-by-mail elections in 2005, and a handful of other states have varying options for mail-in ballots.
Vote-by-mail could also bring more equity to America’s voting process, Wyden said.
“Vote-by-mail, by its nature, means that you don’t have communities of color and low-income communities having to wait in long lines, and being told by poll watchers that their poll is somewhere else,” Wyden told Street Roots on Wednesday. “We’ve all seen those pictures on Sunday or Monday before Election Day, where it’s really hot, and parents are standing in line with their child.”
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Wyden said you don’t have those situations when states have a vote-by-mail option, and particularly in national elections.
“We have $400 million in the package to expand vote-by-mail and absentee voting, and we’re going to do it by mail,” he said.
The bill would give voters in all states 20 days of early in-person voting and no-excuse absentee vote-by-mail. It also ensure states begin processing — but not counting — votes cast during early voting or by mail 14 days before Election Day to avoid delays in counting votes on Election Day.
The bill would also:
• Offer all registered voters the ability to vote by absentee ballot. Currently, 34 states and Washington, D.C., either allow any voter to request an absentee ballot or vote entirely by mail. One-third of states still have restrictions on who can request an absentee ballot.
• Offer voters the ability to submit electronically a request for an absentee ballot rather than having to do so in person or with a paper form.
• Accept absentee ballot requests up until five days before an election for blank ballots sent to the voter by mail and one day before the election for electronic print-at-home ballots.
• Accept ballots that have been postmarked by Election Day, which will be important in the event that mail is delayed due to large numbers of postal workers being quarantined.
Oregon ballots are scheduled to go in the mail April 29 for the May 19 elections.
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