Voting Rights

Today’s primary election went remarkably smoothly for most who made it to the polls but certainly not for all. And we don’t know how many never made it to the polls in the first place in an election where many counties – including those encompassing Louisville and Lexington – had only one polling location for voters. Too many Kentuckians never received the mail-in ballots they requested. As a result, many older voters and other citizens at higher risk of contracting COVID-19 had to choose between risking their safety or giving up their right to vote.

Sarah Goff, Deputy Director at Common Cause New York, said the primary election process has moved “remarkably smoothly” so far, given the challenges, though people may have to wait two to three weeks to know Tuesday's official results. “So we just ask voters and candidates for patience,” Goff said. “And it’s more important that the local boards of elections take the time they need to get the count right and make sure every vote is counted.”

"So the most important thing for the public to know the process here in New York is going to be lengthy. The deadline for the boards to receive absentee ballots is June the 30th, that's a week after the primary. So, they're not going to be opening and starting to count absentee ballots until July 2 at the earliest," said Susan Lerner, the executive director of Common Cause New York. "Two weeks includes the July 4 weekend," she said. "So there's a very real possibility that we may not have truly reliable results, until after the July 4 weekend -- and how far after July 4 we don't know."

Richard Beliles, Common Cause Kentucky board chairman, said offering “so few polling places for the primary is irresponsible and unacceptable, and sadly it was avoidable.”

Jay Heck, the executive director of Common Cause Wisconsin, argues that Wisconsin’s ID requirements for young people violate their constitutional rights, forcing them to “jump through more hoops unnecessarily” than other citizens. At UW-Madison, Wisconsin’s largest university, student ID cards known as WisCards are not compliant with state laws for voting. Among the 13 four-year UW System schools, only four use student IDs that are also voter compliant. To comply with the law, UW System campuses offer separate voter IDs to students upon request. Heck said Republican lawmakers appear to have designed the requirements to discourage students from turning out at the polls. “Obviously a lot of college students are Republican, but their calculation is that more college students would likely vote for Democrats,” he said, adding the requirement “does give (Republicans) a partisan advantage.”

The state doesn’t start counting until all absentee ballots are in: It's a security measure to make sure nobody voted in-person and also submitted an absentee ballot, Common Cause New York Executive Director Susan Lerner said. “People need to change their expectations and adjust to the realities of our current elections,” Lerner said. “If that means taking a little extra time, better to be efficient and accurate than to be fast and raise questions.”