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New York Times: Trump can’t postpone the election. But the courts will help shape how Americans vote this fall.

Decisions over how the general election will be conducted need to be sorted out now, said Sylvia Albert, the director of Voting and Elections at Common Cause, a voting rights group. “The key is not waiting for November,” Ms. Albert said. “The point of those lawsuits is to establish the policies and procedures that are going to be used in November so there isn’t going to be confusion on the day of the election.”

Washington Post: Trump can’t delay the election, experts say

“In an emergency, the president is able to do a lot of things he normally could not do, but only because he has been designated these powers by Congress in laws such as the National Emergencies Act,” said Sylvia Albert, director of voting and elections at Common Cause, a nonprofit group that advocates for eased ballot access. “But in this case, the Constitution empowers Congress, not the president, to select Election Day. No laws passed by Congress have delegated these powers to the president, even in an emergency, so Congress is the only entity that has the power to change the date of the election.”

Voting & Elections 07.29.2020

Associated Press: Advocates urge Hogan to adjust plan for traditional election

Joanne Antoine, executive director of Common Cause Maryland, said a “hybrid election” with automatically mailed ballots and in-person voting would be the safest option. “We are still in a crisis, and we have no idea what October and November are going to look like,” she said during an online press briefing.

Voting & Elections 07.27.2020

Dallas Morning News: Texas Gov. Greg Abbott extends early voting period for November elections citing COVID-19

“These steps are good but nowhere near good enough,” said Anthony Gutierrez, executive director of the government watchdog group, Common Cause Texas. “Other states are doing so much more while Governor Abbott is doing literally the least he can. We need swift and decisive action from either the Governor or Secretary of State to avoid a complete meltdown at the polls in November.”

Voting & Elections 07.26.2020

Associated Press: NY mail-in voting deluge fuels uncounted ballots, confusion

Common Cause New York Executive Director Susan Lerner called it “unacceptable and unfortunate” that so many absentee ballots are being disqualified. “Right now an absentee ballot can be discarded if a cautious voter puts tape on their envelope to make sure the ballot doesn’t fall out,” she said. Her group wants lawmakers to allow voters to request absentee ballots earlier and allow election workers to start counting absentee ballots sooner after Election Day.

Washington Post: Trump faces multiple lawsuits over directive to exclude undocumented immigrants from representation

But even if it is likely the directive would lose in court, it is necessary to seek an immediate block to the directive because it could affect the 2020 Census count that is underway, said Kathay Feng, Common Cause’s national director of redistricting and representation. “It could affect response because most immigrant families have a mix of people of different status,” she said. The directive could also affect the Census Bureau’s process in deciding which households to go to, Feng said. Instead of attempting to count every household in the United States, she said, the bureau could “only go to households which they think fall into the category that the president wants counted.”

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