Philadelphia Inquirer: How hard will it be to vote during the coronavirus? It depends on where you live.

04.21.2020 / By Jonathan Tamari and Jonathan Lai
Philadelphia Inquirer: How hard will it be to vote during the coronavirus? It depends on where you live.

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

Across Pennsylvania’s northern border in Erie County, N.Y. (home to Buffalo), some polling places open more than a week before Election Day and are scheduled to be available over two weekends, for convenience. In Erie County, Pa., a few miles south, voting early is less flexible. You have to do it with an absentee ballot at the county election office. Weekend hours aren’t certain. (The same goes throughout Pennsylvania.)

And if you live in Allegheny County, you’ll automatically get a vote-by-mail application sent to your home. Elsewhere in Pennsylvania, you have to request one.

As states scramble to adapt elections for the coronavirus pandemic, the rules vary widely, each set by seemingly small bureaucratic decisions that together determine how easy or hard it is to vote — and how many people do or don’t.

Those rules are now subject to a growing legal and political battle across the country, especially in closely divided states like Pennsylvania, where tiny differences could influence who wins its 20 electoral votes and, ultimately, the White House. …

With Pennsylvania elections officials already short of money, changing to all-mail elections would require investments, along with massive public education campaigns.

Congress has approved $400 million for pandemic-related election costs this year, but Democrats say at least $2 billion more is needed.

Voting rights advocates worry that politics could stymie reforms.

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

See More: Voting RightsVoting & ElectionsCOVID-19