Without Election by Mail, We Risk a Repeat of Bush v. Gore
My friend Fred agreed with the majority in Republican National Committee v. Democratic National Committee, the Wisconsin election case decided recently, that the question was a narrow, technical one.
I sided with Ruth Bader Ginsburg that overturning the ruling of the district court would disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of voters in the time of a pandemic, even though they had requested absentee ballots before the voting deadline.
By the end of the week, Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts and Secretary of State Bob Evnen had said the Wisconsin calamity – my word, not theirs – couldn’t happen here because Nebraskans had more time before the May 12 election to prepare, more people had already sought absentee ballots and more polling places would be fully staffed by the big day.
Many observers fear a repeat in the 2020 election cycle of the events in Bush v. Gore. Alan Dershowitz wrote in “Supreme Injustice” that the majority opinion in 2000 was the single most corrupt decision in the history of the Supreme Court.
Evnen’s website is very helpful to Nebraska voters who seek to cast absentee ballots. A link to every state, courtesy of the National Association of Secretaries of State, shows that some states are less accommodating to those wishing to vote by mail.
It is well-known that barriers to registration and voting such as short timelines, voter ID requirements, mandates on early mailing and restrictions on ballot “harvesting” – that’s taking your sick neighbor’s ballot to be deposited – and the elimination of polling places all help prevent people from exercising their right to choose leaders.
I live in a county in Arizona where many elections are strictly by mail. If you are registered, you get a ballot in the mail with a return postage paid envelope. With that, only 67% of the registered Democrats voted in the March presidential primary! And not even a hint of voter fraud.
If a second wave of COVID-19 strikes in October through November, shouldn’t we do everything to guarantee that all Americans vote in the 2020 election?
User login
Omaha Daily Record
The Daily Record
222 South 72nd Street, Suite 302
Omaha, Nebraska
68114
United States
Tele (402) 345-1303
Fax (402) 345-2351