COVID-19

“Today is better than April, but that doesn’t mean it will be smooth sailing in November,” said Jay Heck, state director for Common Cause Wisconsin, a government watchdog group.

“Without proper funding, guidance and preparedness, the problems seen in previous elections are going to be just the tip of the iceberg this November,” Sylvia Albert, voting and elections director with Common Cause, warned lawmakers during a congressional hearing last week.

"New York did not have any infrastructure or an expanded absentee program. So the Board of Elections had to completely revise the entire way in which they were approaching absentee ballots in six weeks," Susan Lerner, the executive director of Common Cause New York, a nonpartisan good government organization, told ABC News.

Americans expect and deserve more from their President in the midst of a pandemic and an economic crisis than a photo op and phony posturing at a golf club. Unwilling and unable to negotiate with Congress to deliver a relief package to a nation reeling from COVID-19, President Trump resorted to unconstitutional half measures that will do little to address the serious issues facing the nation.

The COVID-19 pandemic did not have to be so catastrophic in the United States. The effects of the pandemic did not need to fall disproportionately on communities of color. These outcomes are the largely predictable consequences of political decisions and actions. Preventing such consequences in future national disasters requires us to act now.

Sylvia Albert, director of voting and elections for nonprofit group Common Cause, testified at the hearing that President Trump's comments about election security have swayed public perception. "We have seen already that the president's rhetoric is affecting the confidence that voters have both in vote-by-mail particularly and also in elections in general," Albert said.