The choice should not be voting or health
decided to sign onto the lawsuit, said Reimers, the first of its kind for the Connecticut chapter.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently recommended that voters be given options beyond going to the polls to cast their vote. Those include expanding poll hours, staggered voting (to avoid crowds) and — where it’s allowed — something besides in-person voting.
People who oppose mailin ballots — starting with the president of the United States — claim the method is prone to fraud, a claim that’s been debunked multiple times. It’s a lie, in other words. Members of the military have been using the system at least since the Civil War.
Studies show that the easier it is to cast a ballot, the greater the voter turnout. This is particularly true for voters of color. A 2019 study said voters in allBlack neighborhoods — compared to voters in allwhite neighborhoods — are 74 percent more likely to spend more than 30 minutes at their local polls. The longer a voter stands in line, the greater the likelihood they might give up. And this year, long lines increases voters’ potential exposure.
Add to that the out-sized impact the coronavirus has already had on people of color. According to a recent DataHaven study, Connecticut’s Black and Latinx communities are seeing higher rates of infections, and death from the novel virus. This pandemic has laid bare so many of our fault lines. If we’re smart, we’ll use this new, sad awareness to create a better system. Let’s start with how we vote.