Is there time to make voting by mail work?

In Wisconsin, Democrats sued elections officials to extend voting deadlines.

In Rhode Island, the secretary of state wants all 788,000 registered voters to receive absentee ballot applications.

In Maryland, a special election to replace the late Rep. Elijah Cummings will be conducted entirely by mail.

As the coronavirus outbreak upends daily life and tears at the social fabric of the country, states are rapidly searching for ways to protect the most sacred institution in a democracy: voting.

With gatherings of people suddenly presenting an imminent health threat, state officials and voting rights activists have begun calling for an enormous expansion of voting by mail — for the remaining Democratic presidential primary race and, planning for the worst-case scenario, the general election in November.

“The DNC is urging the remaining primary states to use a variety of other critical mechanisms that will make voting easier and safer for voters and election officials alike,” Tom Perez, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, said in a statement late Tuesday. “The simplest tool is vote by mail, which is already in use in a number of states and should be made available to all registered voters.”

While rules vary somewhat state to state, 33 states and the District of Columbia currently collect ballots by mail or permit “no excuse” absentee voting, in which people can vote absentee for any reason. Colorado, Washington state and Oregon have all-mail elections.

Historically, going to the polls has been an American ritual — so much so that some communities shut down their schools on

Election Day. Yet an increasing number of people have opted to skip polling sites altogether in recent years, choosing to vote from their homes. More than 23% of voters had cast their ballots by mail in the 2016 general election, twice as many as voters did in 2004.

The next three nominating contests in the Democratic primary race — Hawaii, Wyoming and Alaska — are all run by the state Democratic Party, not the state government. All three have had extensive vote-bymail operations in place for months; Wyoming even canceled its in-person caucuses and went to a full vote-by-mail system.

But given the decentralized structure of U.S. elections, which are governed by states, counties and even municipalities, shifting to a federally mandated, completely vote-by-mail system for the general election could be impossible both logistically and legislatively.

Charles Stewart, a professor of political science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, expressed optimism that states could gear up to expand mail and absentee voting for the coming primary elections, which tend to have relatively low turnout.

The November general election will be another matter, he said.

“I think that once people take a deep breath and consider what’s going to be done in November, they’re going to realize that the big lift necessary to expand the amount of mail voting by a factor of four, five or six in some states is going to be disruptive,” said Stewart, who studies voting technology and election administration.

Under normal circumstances, states gradually transition to mail voting.

Stewart said he worried that states’ lack of experience holding big elections without in-person voting could have negative consequences.

“You can go step by step through the process and realize that there are a lot of details that can cause the mail ballot pipeline to spring leaks,” he said.

In Maryland, the state’s plan to run its special congressional race by mail — the first time the state has done so for a congressional election — will serve as a practice run in case the state is forced to move to statewide mail-in voting, said former Rep. Kweisi Mfume, the Democratic candidate in that race.

“The one good thing that comes out of this is that, for the first time, without having to conduct a statewide mail-in election, the state will have a real opportunity, in a congressional district, to put in place a procedure that is jointly agreed upon and to see to what extent it works,” said Mfume, who added that he supported the decision this week by Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican, to move to an all-mail congressional election.

Gaining access to the ballot box has increasingly become a partisan issue, with some Republicans, citing reports of voter fraud, adding hurdles that include purging voter rolls and instituting voter ID requirements, while Democrats promote ideas like sameday registration and early and mail voting options.

Democrats in Congress have pushed to expand voting by mail amid the coronavirus pandemic, with the possibility that it can still be wreaking havoc in November.