National and Minnesota Report
A new study by the Pew Charitable Research Center published on Tuesday Two-Thirds of Americans Expect Presidential Election Will Be Disrupted by COVID-19: Sizable majority favors option of voting by mail significantly shows a majority of those polled, support voting by mail in both parties, contrary to Donald J Trump (R) and Republican Congressional opposition, specifically Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY). We contend it’s not how people vote, but rather the ability being provided to all eligible voters without requiring multiple steps, impediments to do so. If every voter legally eligible to vote is empowered to do so and given easy access to their ballot Republicans will suffer significant losses, because what is true is higher turnout clearly does favor Democrats. Republicans know this and their veritable political survival depends upon.
The resulting 50 plus cases of COVID-19 seen in WI after the forced poll openings, by the Republican controlled State Supreme Court overruled Governor Tony Evers (D-WI) should give anyone with a conscience pause.
The fear and trepidation Republicans have is a result not of the process, but rather the lack of ability to manipulate the process through voter suppression techniques. These include such methods as cleaning or rather purging the voter registration rolls, or limitation to ballot access by not providing enough staffing or ballots in majority minority districts, or requiring provisional ballots, which can be eliminated by order of a Republican biased court or a Republican Secretary of State. The tactics deployed are just as onerous as Poll Taxes, Poll Tests and Grandfather Clauses of the Jim Crow Era, just now they have a more legalistic face to them.
The nationalization of the voting process, and the standardization of the rules is something greatly dreaded by Republicans. Because it is through local control that the suppression takes place. Denying the voter, the right on the front end means there is not a ballot in existence requiring a challenge later is a far easier process for the suppressors.
If voters are given free and unfettered access to their ballot, in the privacy of their homes, mailed directly to them from an eligible voters list taken from drivers licenses, identification cards, property tax records, county assistant records, or any other mechanisms people have as a relationship to their government and they are automatically sent a ballot, a revolution will have taken place. Because once a voter is able it easily exercises their franchise, they will expect it to return for the next election. It’s the cow getting out of the barn is the effect Republicans want to prevent.
As we have said before, a universal vote-by-mail system where people only need to sign-up for once, is will be the largest voter enfranchisement in the history of our nation