Election Changes
Please bookmark our statewide 2020 primary calendar and our calendar of key downballot races, both of which we're updating continually as changes are finalized.
Massachusetts: State Senate Majority Leader Cynthia Creem has introduced a bill to allow all voters to request an absentee ballot both for Massachusetts' Sept. 1 primary and the November general election. The measure would also set up a period of early voting for the primary. State Senate President Karen Spilka, a fellow Democrat, has said she supports the legislation.
A separate bill filed by a pair of Democratic lawmakers, state Sen. Becca Rausch and state Rep. Adrian Madaro, would have the state send mail-in ballots to all voters for both the primary and general election.
Missouri: Republican Gov. Mike Parson says he does not believe it is permissible for voters who are concerned about the coronavirus pandemic or are abiding by his stay-at-home order to cite either as a reason for requesting an absentee ballot. He further derided the idea of expanded absentee voting as a "political issue" and a "Democrat-Republican issue."
Parson, however, may not have the last word. Republican Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft has refused to address the issue, saying "it is not up to" him to determine whether concerns about the virus are a valid reason for voting absentee. That has left the matter in the hands of Missouri's 115 county-level election administrators. Activists have canvassed every local clerk's office and received many different answers. Some are explicitly encouraging voters to cast absentee ballots, others are saying COVID-19 permits the practice, and still others are siding with Parson in saying it's forbidden.
Nevada: Republican Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske's office says it will take no action in response to a letter from the Nevada Democratic Party charging that the state's plan to conduct its June 9 primaries by mail is deficient. Democrats had said that opening only one in-person voting site per county would be insufficient. They also said that the state should mail ballots to all registered voters, not only those who are listed as "active" in the state's files.
A Cegavske aide countered that adding polling locations would lead to "logistical and staffing challenges" and said that sending ballots to so-called "inactive" voters "would increase printing and mailing costs and result in a significant amount of undeliverable ballots." In their letter, Democrats suggested they would sue in the absence of a satisfactory response.
New Mexico: The New Mexico Supreme Court has rejected a request by 27 of the state's 33 county clerks to order that the June 2 primaries be conducted by mail, saying that state law forbids mailing ballots to every voter. However, the court noted that there's no similar prohibition on sending absentee ballot applications to all voters, prompting Democratic Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver to say her office would do so.
An attorney for the clerks argued that seeking relief from the court was a "last resort" because the legislature is unable to meet to consider any changes to the law. The justices were unmoved, but notably, the court issued its decision after hearing the case remotely.