WE NEED A NATIONAL VOTE BY MAIL ELECTION

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’ decision to end his presidential campaign Wednesday was the right move at the right time. Even if it’s shown that he won Tuesday’s Wisconsin primary when the results are released next week, Democratic frontrunner Joe Biden was all but assured of becoming the party’s nominee as a result of his lead going into the remaining primaries. And seeing Wisconsin voters standing in long lines and casting ballots in face masks during this coronavirus pandemic was horrifying.

Scenes like that can’t be repeated across America, voters doing their duty while risking their safety.

Given the public health implications and how high the stakes are, Sanders is wise not to drag out a fight he can’t win, as he did in 2016 against eventual Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. Sanders would be wiser to help Biden as much as he can, especially after seeing the initial coronavirus crisis chaos and denial from President Donald Trump.

Something for both Biden and Sanders to consider is what Sanders’ popularity says about the desire among millions of Americans for a much more benevolent and generous government. Many Democratic candidates, including Biden, have adopted platforms far to the left of Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, the last two Democratic presidents. Many armchair analysts will tell you this shows that the appetite for Medicare for all, free college and a higher minimum wage is widespread.

Yet as shown in South Carolina in late February and on Super Tuesday in several states in early March before the coronavirus pandemic upended the world, many of the minority voters who are mainstays of the Democratic coalition picked Biden over Sanders. Now is not the time for a civil war over the future of the party. By agreeing to a truce, Biden and Sanders Democrats would help each other.

A more important agreement is this: Our leaders must hash out vote by mail provisions for primaries and the fall election and ensure safe elections going forward because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The U.S. and Wisconsin Supreme Courts may well have been on solid legal ground in holding Monday that a federal judge and the governor of Wisconsin did not have legal authority, respectively, to unilaterally change the parameters of Tuesday’s voting. But those decisions the courts overturned were the result of well-grounded fears that it was crazy to have tens of thousands of voters gather at far fewer precincts than normal at a time when authorities are desperate to flatten the curve of new coronavirus cases to prevent the nation’s health care system from being overwhelmed by the virus pandemic. It is unfathomable that the Republicancontrolled Wisconsin legislature refused to work with Democratic Gov. Tony Evers to delay the election or shift to vote by mail, as was done by 16 states.

Despite the scandal-free success of mail-only voting in Colorado, Hawaii, Oregon, Utah and Washington, and even though Trump voted by mail himself just last month in the Florida primary, Trump this week vilified the concept and suggested his discredited belief in widespread voting fraud cannot be shaken. Someone must persuade him otherwise.

Or else state leaders need to step up and pass their own laws or establish their own rules to encourage voting by mail. Republican election regulators in Georgia and Ohio have taken the inspired step of sending absentee ballot request forms to every voter in their states for upcoming primaries. This should be copied by as many states as possible.

Coronavirus is on the march. There are 208 days until the Nov. 3 election — and bright minds on both sides of the aisle. To protect Americans and American democracy, they need to Zoom into a videochat room to figure out how to allow voting by mail for all.