Today is Election Day: vote for peace
Voting matters, and twice a year, we urge readers to stand up and be counted by going to the polls and voting.
Today is the 2020 Pennsylvania Primary Election, a day when we devote this space to a reminder to vote.
The responsibility of citizens in a democracy is sacred and should be exercised even in foul weather and even in a primary election where there may be few choices on the ballot. Voting matters, and twice a year, we urge readers to stand up and be counted by going to the polls and voting.
This year, that passionate reminder comes with some reservation, tempered by counties working to combat a pandemic, businesses trying to restore a shattered economy, and the nation’s cities erupting in a tinderbox of racial protests.
This year is the “pandemic primary,” fraught with nervous poll workers, closed polling places, mail-in ballot snafus and political sparring. Montgomery County Commissioner and Board of Elections Chairman Kenneth Lawrence called it “a perfect storm.”
This is the first election in which Pennsylvania voters could request an absentee ballot without an excuse, a change in law that was a beneficial coincidence during the state’s stay-at-home orders which are just starting to be lifted.
The primary today was scheduled for April 28 but postponed due to coronavirus concerns and state Department of Health restrictions on gatherings.
As of Friday, Montgomery County had already received more than 70,000 ballots. But a voter services error in the county that sent out 1,984 incorrect ballots left some voters in the lurch without enough time to receive and return a ballot by the 8 p.m. deadline tonight.
The Montgomery County Board of Elections met Monday to add several drop-off spots for the ballots so that voters could get them in today. Drop-off sites were added in Chester County as well.
Delaware County expects more than 80,000 mail-in ballots and took similar steps.
Polls are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m., and the same rules apply that anyone in line by 8 p.m. will be permitted to cast a vote. Polling places have been changed in many precincts throughout the region because places where they were held may be closed due to the coronavirus.
On the ballot are candidates for president, delegates to the nominating conventions and several contests for legislative and congressional races, as well as the state auditor general.
This election comes at a time of protests and violence. Fires, looting and police confrontations were widespread during the weekend in reaction to the death of George Floyd, a black man who died in Minneapolis police custody while a white officer knelt on his neck, a video showed. The officer has been charged with murder.
In our towns, leaders issued calls for peaceful efforts to establish trust between police and people of color. In Pottstown, a large protest was held outside borough hall with police taking a knee alongside the protesters. In Reading, about 500 people of varying ages and racial and ethnic makeup marched through town in a show of unity. Riots and looting broke out on Sunday night in Upper Darby on 69th Street.
“We’re hurt, we’re angry, we’re sad, we’re unheard,” said march organizer Kiya Towles in Reading, “but it is a beautiful thing because we are all here ... in unity.”
As we strive to beat back the coronavirus and reopen the economy, we must first accept dealing with these racial tensions that we have brought upon ourselves through years of prejudice and unequal treatment of people of color.
While we exercise today the opportunity to vote and participate in the world’s greatest democracy, let’s also start this long overdue process of working toward equality.
We urge local police and community leaders to lead the way in speaking out, admitting and owning responsibility for the thoughts and actions that further inequality. We can start by talking to our children, our community leaders, and our neighbors, and also going outside our neighborhoods and leaving our comfort zones for honest dialogue with those whose experiences are different from our own. No one should be “unheard.”
We have ahead of us a tall climb from how far our society has fallen in racial mistrust and inequality. We must strive in our towns to come together in ways that resist violence and foster trust.