It’s kind hard to believe that we started this series just 10 weeks ago, in the before times. This coronavirus pandemic has changed everything.
The original goal was a poll-free, spin-free, prognostication-free political thread, and the hope was that this would help provide inspiration, and encourage action as an alternative to anger, frustration and despair. Circumstances are now wildly different, and the anger, frustration and despair may be coming out of different circumstances, but we still need inspiration – and action still beats the hell out of impotent rage.
Going forward, I’d kind of like to highlight a different opportunity on each post. Maybe one donation opportunity and/or one action opportunity each time?
I need each of you to take the lead by providing me with a short blurb for the donation opportunity and/or the action opportunity that is most important to you. Please share in the comments, or send info to me by email – we can feature one in each post.
I’ll get us started today, with this from the Southern Poverty Law Center.
No one should have to risk their life to vote. That was true in the days of the civil rights movement, when thousands of Black Americans put their lives on the line to claim the voting rights they had been unjustly denied. And it is equally true today in the midst of a deadly pandemic that makes in-person voting a serious and unnecessary risk, especially for medically susceptible people and communities.
State officials of both parties across the nation have taken decisive steps to ensure voting is safe for all during this public health crisis — measures like expanding absentee voting, waiving onerous absentee ballot rules and increasing early voting opportunities.
Yet Alabama, so far, has done very little.
Alabamians cannot wait. They have the right to vote without placing themselves, their families and their communities in danger. That’s why, on Friday, we sued Alabama Governor Kay Ivey and other top officials over the state’s lack of safe and accessible voting processes amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
“In the midst of a pandemic, Alabama can make our elections more secure, more efficient and more accessible to all eligible voters while still protecting public health and safety,” said Caren Short, senior staff attorney for the SPLC. “We are filing this lawsuit to ensure that Alabama voters are not forced to choose between their health and their vote.”
The federal lawsuit — filed in partnership with the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF) and the Alabama Disabilities Advocacy Program (ADAP) — requests that a federal court instruct state officials to make absentee and in-person voting more accessible to protect the health and safety of Alabama voters.
The lawsuit also notes that these measures are particularly important for older voters, voters with disabilities and Black voters, who have been severely and disproportionately affected by COVID-19. Despite making up about one-fourth of the state’s population, Black people account for 45 percent of Alabama’s COVID-19-related deaths.
“No one should have to choose between their life or their vote,” said LDF Senior Counsel Deuel Ross. “[Alabama’s] burdensome voting requirements weigh heavily on Alabamians during all elections. But requiring voters to comply with these restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic needlessly endangers lives.”
For more, please read our press release about the filing or the full complaint.
If you are so inclined, there’s a donation button at the first link.
MoCA Ace
Impotent rage? I’ll have you know my rage is very potent. Some would say the most potent. Why just the other day my anger management therapist came to me with tears in her eyes and said sir your manly potent rage has ignited a fire in my loins… I’ll save the rest for Balloon Juice After Dark!
Anyhow, I fully endorse the idea of suing the states to force them to improve vote-by-mail and other safe voting options. Assuming the lawsuits are ultimately successful, what are the odds these cases make it through the courts in time to help with the November election?
Here in WI it looks like the Supreme’s are going to strike down the extended “Safer at Home” order so November is looking more dangerous already.
Omnes Omnibus
I agree with you on the first part, but I am not sure how that leads to November being more dangerous.
Lapassionara
@MoCA Ace: On, Wisconsin.
Here in St Louis County, the Board of Election Commissioners decreed that all senior citizens were especially at risk to the virus, so we were invited to apply to vote absentee for all remaining 2020 elections in the category of “disabled.” I think most state election laws have “disability” as a category permitting absentee voting, and I think each county can decide what constitutes a disability for purposes of the law. So making this happen for at risk populations should be doable, legally.
Brachiator
Vote by mail is coming to Los Angeles County for November. From an April 28 story.
The state may consider a similar proposal.
There should also be a big push to make November Election Day a holiday, to also help make it easier and safer for people to vote.
WaterGirl
@Omnes Omnibus: Which Supremes? WI supreme court? Or
Trump’sRobert’s Supreme Court?karen marie
Given that NY State was ordered to reinstate the Dem primary at the end of June, does anyone know what, if anything, NY State is doing to expand absentee voting for that primary (and for the November general)?
As I’m sure you’re all aware, it ain’t just Alabama that’s problematic with respect to requiring in-person voting by limiting voters’ ability to get a mail-in ballot.
karen marie
@Lapassionara: Unless it also extends to people who live with or work with people who are of an age to qualify, it’s bullshit.
WaterGirl
If anyone is on top of the situation regarding the current shaky situation with post offices under fire, and anything that we can do to help, I would love that to be one of our next topics.
Is anyone willing to put that together and send it to me?
Omnes Omnibus
@WaterGirl: WI. People are challenging the governor’s extension on the Safer at Home order until later this month. The arguments are basically that he doesn’t have the authority to do it on his own (naturally the GOP dominated legislature will not show up to help), and that it really isn’t that bad an emergency. The court as currently constituted is likely to denying the extension.
Omnes Omnibus
@karen marie: Since NY was already allowing vote by mail for the counties that had other elections on the ballot in the primary, I don’t think it will be problematic.
WaterGirl
@Omnes Omnibus: And to think that until the SC Bush v. Gore ruling, I actually thought that courts were not partisan. Certainly not at the supreme court level, anyway.
Reality was a cruel teacher.
Yutsano
@Omnes Omnibus: All while voting from the safety of their homes. Nice work if you can get it eh?
@WaterGirl: Fuck Sandra Day O’Connor with all the rusty farm implements. She had her chance here. Let her legacy be permanently stained.
pamelabrown53
@WaterGirl:
WaterGirl, I was thinking the exact same thing!
Re: the post office. I was wondering if we could contact other like minded blogs and organizations and launch a national “Buy Stamps Day”. Maybe put some $$ in the USPS’s coffers while drawing attention to its plight?
WaterGirl
@Yutsano: Yep. She was entrusted with one of the highest positions in the land, yet she didn’t have the integrity to do what was right for the institution she was serving.
Fuck her forever.
WaterGirl
@pamelabrown53: I may be the wrong person to ask. Because I don’t think we can save the post office with our pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters and dollars.
I think we have to make our elected officials do the right thing, but I don’t know how or where to apply the pressure. That’s what I’m hoping someone else can research and share with the rest of us.
WaterGirl
@Yutsano:
Safe enough for me, but not for thee.
Dog Mom
@karen marie: I believe that the governor has ordered the BOE in each county to mail an application for an absentee ballot to each eligible voter. The voter needs to then return the prepaid application and they should then receive the actual ballot. Believe the request can be done online as well. This was the procedure necessary for it to be done within existing law.
Elizabelle
@WaterGirl: Kirsten Gillibrand just wrote an excellent op ed re the post office in the FTF NY Times.
Maybe call her office and see if they have an essay or action points ready to share, or someone to guest blog or be a guest and take Q&As. We have a big readership.
The op ed (will summarize next):
Trump Called the Postal Service a ‘Joke.’ I’m Trying to Save It.
The Postal Service should be allowed to deliver low-cost financial services to poor and rural communities. And vote-by-mail should be universal.
Elizabelle
recap re post office from NY’s North Country Public Radio. This story is silent on voting.
Gillibrand calls for postal service funding and expansion of scope
WaterGirl
@Elizabelle: Excellent idea! Would you like to do it? :-)
Or someone else here?
Elizabelle
@WaterGirl: I’ll do it. Got the time.
MoCA Ace
@Lapassionara: Anyone in WI can vote by mail if they request a ballot. What we need is universal vote-by-mail where the state automatically mails ballots to every voter. But, as Trump and our own Leader of the WI Senate admitted, that would benefit the Dems.
Omnes Omnibus
@MoCA Ace: The legislature won’t okay universal vote by mail. They know it’s their death warrant. Encourage everyone you know to go to myvote.wi.gov to check their registration status and request an absentee ballot.
neldob
@Elizabelle: Yes! That was amazing. Jim Hightower has been working on that for some time. A tiny spark of progress. I will never forget the (impoverished looking) young man at the bank who had to pay $5 to cash his $300 paycheck.
neldob
Probably the last one on this bus, but I am boycotting all the advertisers on Fox and writing them to let them know that everyone I know is starting to do that, my children, their friends, etc, etc.
WaterGirl
@Elizabelle: Spectacular! I really appreciate that.