Voting shouldn’t be life or death

The coronavirus pandemic already has killed many thousands of Americans and sickened many thousands more. We must not let America’s democracy become another victim.

Steps must be taken now in Kern County, California and across the nation to protect voters and election workers as Americans cast ballots in the November general election.

If we are lucky enough to see the spread of the deadly virus ease in the summer, some health officials predict there will be a second wave in the fall. We can only hope by then testing for the virus will be widely available and treatments improved. But a vaccine to prevent infection likely still will be months away.

In the November election, Americans must not be faced with a cruel choice — cast a ballot in person and risk death, or stay home and not vote. Expanded use of vote-by-mail and early voting are just two strategies that can enhance safe voting. Republicans and Democrats must work together to find ways that also will assure the integrity of the electoral system.

As the death rate continued to climb last week and the U.S. Surgeon General predicted America was heading into another Pearl Harbor tragedy, Americans were urged to stay in their homes to curb spread of the virus.

But in Wisconsin, voters waited in long lines Tuesday to cast their primary election ballots. It wasn’t an act of defiance. It was an act of patriotism and an unnecessary health risk taken by ordinary citizens to exercise their right to vote.

Wisconsin’s Democratic governor tried to protect them. He tried to delay the election to give citizens more time to vote by mail — and avoid the risk of face-to-face voting.

But his effort was blocked by a lawsuit filed by Republicans. On the election’s eve, the lawsuit was decided by the conservative U.S. Supreme Court majority, which concluded it was too late to change Wisconsin’s election rules.

Some are likening the election skirmish to the “canary in the mine” — a warning sign of many partisan battles to come as both political parties will attempt to game the November election.

Republicans and Democrats have been locked into this battle way before any of us heard of coronavirus. Common wisdom is that white, older traditional voters tend to vote for Republican candidates, and first-time, younger American voters of color tend to vote for Democrats. As a result, Republicans push for rules restricting access to the ballot box, and Democrats push for rules that make voting easier.

Wisconsin allows citizens to vote by mail. But commonly for a spring election, less than 250,000 requests for absentee ballots are received. As voters scrambled to avoid face-to-face voting this month, elections officials were swamped with about 1.2 million requests. Some ballots could not be delivered until after the election, forcing many voters to show up in person and wait in long lines. The number of polling places also had been greatly reduced, as poll workers feared being infected and refused to show up.

Election rules are established by individual states — often by the majority political party in an attempt to stay in power. Five states automatically mail ballots to voters in advance of elections. More than a dozen states restrict the use of mail-in ballots. Some states have early voting, others allow ballots to be cast only on Election Day.

California has adopted so many easy-voting options that election officials in some counties simply could not keep up with demand during the March 3 primary and people waited for hours to vote.

While voting went fairly well on March 3 in Kern County, the retirement of three key elections officials just a few weeks before the primary and the dismissal of the chief election supervisor is concerning.

Taking action to assure that all citizens of Kern County, California and the nation will be able to safely cast their ballots in November must begin now. The goals of Republicans and Democrats must be to keep voters and election workers safe, while protecting the integrity of the vote.

These goals can be realized only if craven partisan game-playing is set aside.