The Rite and Rights of Voting

 

“The Congress may determine the Time of ‘chusing’ the Electors, and the Day on which they shall give their Votes; which Day shall be the same throughout the United States.” United States Constitution - Article ll, Section l ‘original spelling’.

On a day where the news was not looking good, the President decided to float the idea of postponing the election if voters could not go to the polls in the usual manner.  If it is too dangerous to go to school or back to work, then maybe congregating to vote in November is not a good idea?  He seemed somehow to consider voting by mail – which he does (as do the overseas military, embassy staffs, and the populations of several states) - appropriate, but not absentee voting which he considers suspicious, possibly fraudulent and open to rigging; (there is basically no difference between them.) As is mentioned in the lead-off paragraph, Congress sets the date for the election and the President cannot change it. His newly appointed (major Republican funder and political appointee) Postmaster General has tried to reorganize the mail delivery, by stopping overtime and the long term requirement that each piece of mail in the post office on any given day, must be handled that day. Is it possible that they are setting the stage for delaying valid ballots from reaching election centers?  While some states have made it easy to have ballot drop-offs at public buildings, the Republican Party has sued the State of Pennsylvania to prohibit use of such drop-off points, claiming, without evidence, that they are easily tampered with. 

Many, including myself, think that this is all a set of false claims and bogus moves and part of a wider plan to discredit and create disbelief in the election process and eventual outcomes, especially if Vice-President Biden is declared the winner.  By creating doubts in the propriety of the process, some voters may become alienated or discouraged and not vote, or - if they do vote - will be suspicious of the final results. Such claims were made against Hillary Clinton, even though she lost the Electoral College vote, when she won the popular vote by over three million votes. (In 2016, more than 138 million Americans voted; that was only 58.1% of the total number of eligible voters.) Do you remember that the President claimed that millions of illegal immigrants voted for Clinton; he was claiming the election was rigged in her favor, even though he won.  He is already warning about it taking months, maybe years, to know the final results this time and raising doubts about whether or not he might leave office if he loses.

In Maryland, Governor Hogan, decrying some ballot mailing glitches in the June Primary where every voter should have received a ballot - but did not, has decided to mail out applications for absentee ballots, but not ballots, for the Presidential election in November.  He has decided to open every poll, to the dismay of many of the elderly poll workers who have indicated they will not be available during a pandemic.  Many venues (such as churches and schools) which formerly housed the polls have also said that their facilities will not be open for the election. So, as of now, the county election boards, the poll workers, the voters and state government are all at odds over the format for this increasingly important election when the state and local governments should be doing all they can to facilitate a smooth process. Maryland has a no excuse clause for absentee voters, so one does not need a doctor’s notice or letter from work to apply. Voters are encouraged to make a request for their absentee ballot early and not wait for the state to send the application. One may be requested on line at the State Board of Elections.  The last date for such requests will be October 22nd for the November 3^rd election. Completed ballots must be postmarked by Election Day and received by November 13^th at the latest in order to be counted.

Votes on voting machines provide rapid results; the votes on paper ballots take much longer as each paper ballot must be scanned or computer read after validation of the voter and the ID on the ballot at hand.  Whereas voting at a poll requires check in of some type and validation of the voter, by the time that vote is cast – it has been correctly tallied, especially if there is use of an optical scanner and a paper trail kept on hand. In California in 2018, due to a large number of mailed ballots –over 30% or about 8 million – final results were not in for several weeks in some close races. (As an aside – in this year’s Presidential Primary race more than 100,000 mailed ballots were disqualified for one reason or another in California alone.) Many experts believe, that as many as 75% of the November votes will be mailed in across the country, due to fears of voting in person during a pandemic.  The longer it might take to have final tallies, the more time there will be for those on the fringes of reality to voice conspiracy theories about who is fixing this state or that election.  One third of the Senate is elected every two years, as well as all members of the House of Representatives, so much more is at stake than the Presidency. But be ready, it Is doubtful that the networks will be able to call the National results on election night or even the week afterwards.  There may well be local races called before the Presidential race. How many remember the Florida hanging chads and the election so badly decided by the Supreme Court – in what many believe was an overly partisan decision?  The President is already threatening litigation if the results are not in his favor.  We will need to have a wide margin across the country – or what is called an old-fashioned landslide - to block such efforts.

Congressman John Lewis wrote an opinion piece for The New York Times published on the day of his funeral.  In it he indicated: “Voting and participating in the voting process is key.  The vote is the most powerful non-violent change agent you have in a democratic society.  You must use it because it is not guaranteed. You can lose it.”

President Obama in his eulogy for Mr. Lewis spoke out sharply against measures such as voter suppression, voter intimidation and voter roll purging as he urged that the Congress reaffirm the measures of the Voting Rights Bill of 1965, which was gutted in the Shelby decision by the Supreme Court, and rename the new bill in favor of Congressman Lewis. He urged further efforts toward both voting and marching. 

There were several tidbits on my list this week, but this blog will then be too long, so I will catch up next week.

Covid Stats from the CDC:

Total United States cases as of 8/2/20:   4,601,526      Total Deaths: 154,002

Total new cases previous 24 hours: 58,947                    Total new deaths: 1,132

Totals for Maryland: Cases: 90,274 Total deaths: 3,381 New cases: 1,019   New deaths 13

It has been just over 60 days since The New York Times printed that amazing front page with the roll call of the names of the 100,000 deaths by that date from COVID-19. In just the last 60 days we have increased that number by over 50% and some say we will reach 180,000 deaths by late August. Meanwhile, the virus continues unchecked in over half of the country at this time.  There is still no National Plan for a unified approach to masks, limited exposure, safe distancing or closures. Former GOP candidate for President, Herman Cain, attended the rally in Tulsa and sat in the crowd without a mask, despite knowing that he was a cancer survivor and had other health concerns; several days later he was diagnosed with COVID, and this week, sadly, he died from the disease which complicated his other health issues.

In closing, I will quote the Rev. James Lawson, age 91, who also spoke powerfully at the Lewis Funeral.  Lawson, a civil rights era veteran, had been a mentor to Lewis and other students at the time in Nashville when their activism was just starting.  He recalled those times and compared them to present day issues.  It was his thought that we do not need the Constitution to be changed, but rather that we need the Constitution to come alive.  Only we, the people, can do that. Can we meet his challenge?

‘Til next week – Peace.