COVID-19

The Maryland chapter of the watchdog group Common Cause will send scouts to the voting centers to make sure voters are following Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines and Hogan’s orders to wear masks and remain at least six feet apart. Activists are allowed, as usual, to campaign as long as they remain at least 100 feet from the polling center. Joanne Antoine, executive director of Common Cause in Maryland, said she worries people who didn’t receive ballots will crowd voting centers, defeating their purpose. “The concern is whether we will see people going to these in-person voting centers, which is what the board [of elections] was trying to avoid in the first place,” she said.

“We are extremely fortunate that this is the primary election,” said Catherine Turcer, executive director of the Ohio branch of Common Cause, a nonpartisan watchdog group. “If this were happening in November—and you can imagine the tsunami coming at boards of elections in November—they just couldn’t manage.”

Catherine Turcer, the executive director of Common Cause Ohio, said that for vote-by-mail to be successful in Ohio, should that be the default in November, the process needs to be streamlined. That means eliminating the additional back-and-forth of submitting an absentee ballot application.

Though their regularly stated goal is to relentlessly petition their state legislatures to call for an Article V convention, the coronavirus crisis presents a unique opportunity for their movement, said Jay Riestenberg of Common Cause, who has monitored the group and its involvement with other right-wing groups focused on state legislatures. “The Convention of States is interested in showing any type of image or anything that shows that people don’t like their government. I mean, that is their end goal, to overthrow the federal government and rewrite the Constitution,” Riestenberg said. “So this is a perfect opportunity for them to show that.”

“It frustrates me that voting rights are a partisan fight,” said Suzanne Almeida, acting executive director of Common Cause Pennsylvania.

“I really don’t buy the argument that it can’t be done safely, because grocery stores are open now, essential businesses are open right now,” said Sylvia Albert of Common Cause. “The businesses that are open now are considered essential, and voting is essential.”