Voting & Elections

"In normal circumstances, election officials find it very difficult to have enough poll workers to run elections," says Sylvia Albert, Director of Voting and Elections at the watchdog group Common Cause. This year, she says, "the problem is exponentially larger."

Sylvia Albert, director of voting and elections at Common Cause, an elections watchdog group, said she believes disruption of the voting process is unlikely, but she shared the concerns of others that the counting process could be at risk. “There are strong laws on voter intimidation,” said Albert. “Counting comes into regular laws around disturbing the police or being in a group; there’s nothing specific on that issue. That’s not to say laws don’t cover it, they do – various laws cover being a nuisance but how that’s interpreted in the situation is going to vary by location.” Albert stressed that she did not believe it was probable there would be altercations at vote-counting sites, but she said: “I’m fearful of violence in a way that I was not in 2000.” “We have seen that the rhetoric on the right, both from the president and Republican lawmakers, has encouraged people to take up arms. And whether directly or indirectly, encouraged violence. And that was not happening from George Bush.”

Today, Facebook announced it would reject political ads that claim victory for a political candidate in the 2020 election before the results are finalized. The pledge follows the social media giant’s pattern of making incremental concessions when its existing policies cause controversies and public outcry.   

Roberts’ institutional concerns were on display during the 2019 term, Common Cause attorney Sylvia Albert said. He was the justice most often in the majority, landing there in 96% of the court’s decided cases and in all but one of the 5-4 or equivalent decisions, a Bloomberg Law analysis shows. “Roberts really tried to thread the needle between the conservative and liberal sides of the bench,” Albert said.

Sylvia Albert, director of voting and elections for Common Cause, a voting rights group, said Roberts would likely seek a compromise in such a situation because he is “concerned with his legacy and trying to find a middle ground.”

“In Virginia, the safe zone around the polling location is only 40 feet, but that safe zone is for campaigning and trying to change a person’s vote,” said Sylvia Albert, director of voting and elections at Common Cause, a voting rights group. “Outside of that, in general, there are laws against intimidation. So I would say that even if they have a right to campaign, which they absolutely do, they do not have a right to interfere with someone’s right to vote or to intimidate them.” “To me, this went beyond campaigning and they should have been removed.” ... Ms. Albert added that the demonstration underscored the need for counties and municipalities to develop contingency voting plans for all situations. “Contingency plans aren’t only if there is a hurricane or a pandemic,” she said. “It’s also if something is making my polling location inaccessible to voters. That could be power going down, that could be people protesting and blocking the door.”