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If vote by mail had already been in place across the nation, it would now be one of the few things not greatly affected by the spread of the coronavirus. But objections—many of them from conservatives not eager to see the higher turnout that vote by mail generates—have blocked the idea in numerous states, and about a third of them make it very difficult to get an absentee ballot. Obviously, that needs to change. For some states whose primaries are still weeks away, the change doesn’t have to wait until November.
Eric Cortellessa at The Washington Monthly writes—How to Save Elections From a Pandemic:
South of Salt Lake City, Utah, there’s an idyllic hilltop neighborhood called Suncrest. A master-planned community, hundreds of modern single-family houses stretch out across nearly 4,000 acres of canyons, trails, and Gambel oak trees. If you look in one direction, you see the adjacent mountains that include the ski resorts Alta, Solitude, and Brighton. In the other, you can see the wide expanse of the city. That’s part of Suncrest’s appeal: It’s only 15 miles from the largest city in the state, but it feels like a quiet mountain town.
It also happens to be the place that best illustrates the solution to America’s historically low voter turnout. The U.S. already has some of the lowest participation rates in the developed world. The new coronavirus threatens to make that problem even worse by turning the act of voting itself into a potential health risk.
While Suncrest feels like one community—it has one Mormon church and one restaurant—it’s divided into two counties: Salt Lake and Utah. In fact, the county line runs right down the middle of it. Both sides are similar in population size; each is 90 percent white. In the 2016 election, however, they had dramatically different voter turnout rates. Suncrest’s Salt Lake County residents showed up to vote at a rate nearly 18 percentage points higher than their Utah County counterparts, with about 81 percent of Salt Lake’s registered voters casting ballots compared to Utah’s 63 percent.
What made the difference? The two counties used different voting systems. Whereas Utah County stuck with the traditional model of people lining up at polling places to cast ballots, Salt Lake County switched to conducting its election entirely by mail. Under that system, otherwise known as “vote at home,” voters receive their ballots in the mail weeks before Election Day and can either mail them back or drop them off at a secure site. In other words, Suncrest, a demographically homogenous community, offered something no other part of the country has: a natural experiment to compare traditional voting to voting at home.
Usually, an electoral reform is deemed successful if it increases voter participation a few percentage points. The jump in Salt Lake County’s turnout was on a whole other level. And the disparity wasn’t limited to Suncrest. In that same election, 21 of Utah’s 29 counties had switched to vote at home. Those counties had an average turnout rate of nearly 9 percentage points higher than those that voted the old-fashioned way—and 5 percent higher than was predicted by a generally accurate turnout forecast, according to a study by Pantheon Analytics that was commissioned by the Washington Monthly. [...]
In the U.S., the two greatest tragedies of the coronavirus outbreak are that the federal government waited too long to act and that a vaccine against the disease is likely a year or more away. Fortunately, neither is the case when it comes to elections. A proven solution is at hand. There is still plenty of time to roll out vote at home before the November elections—if we do so carefully, as Utah did.
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BLAST FROM THE PAST
At Daily Kos on this date in 2003—Blair steels himself for 2-front war:
Bush claimed he had nine, or at least eight votes in the UN Security Council. He lied. He said he would force a UN vote to force countries to "show their hand". He lied. As the US and UK come to terms with their massive diplomatic failure, both countries turn to building legitimacy for their invasion.
In the UK, Blair is steeling himself for the resignation of Robin Cook and Clare Short -- an icon of the Labour Party left. And the rebellion amongst Labour Members of Parliament is growing, with more MPs ready to vote against Blair when he introduces his war resolution.
There have been threats that people will lose their jobs,' said Graham Allen, Nottingham MP and a leading figure among those seeking to launch a rebel amendment against the Government. 'They are telling people that the PM needs their loyalty. People are being put in a very difficult position.' Allen, Chris Smith, the former Culture Secretary who led the last rebellion, and Peter Kilfoyle, the former Defence Secretary, will put down an amendment to the Government's position; 200 MPs could rebel. A number of Ministers below Cabinet rank are likely to resign.
On
today’s Kagro in the Morning show:
I bet you'll never guess what resident pulmonologist Greg Dworkin talked about today! Aw, you guessed it! Man, you're good! Did you hear about the hand sanitizer hoarder? Did you hear how he got busted? Rejoice! But now, things start to get real. Ready?