COVID-19

“The big story is really voter confusion,” said Suzanne Almeida, who leads Common Cause Pennsylvania, on a call with reporters. ... In Philadelphia, a small scattering of polling locations opened late because of missing poll books or other minor issues that happen most years, Almeida said. In one predominantly African American area of Pittsburgh, voters complained of feeling intimidated by having to cast ballots in a polling location that also houses a police department during a time of tension between black residents and law enforcement.

“We are seeing and feeling the effects of the police response to the protests over the last few days,” said Suzanne Almeida, interim executive director of Common Cause Pennsylvania. She cited the city convention center, where 18 polling locations had been condensed into one, as having a significant presence of National Guard troops, “which is obviously a deterrent to voters.”

Democrats and voting rights groups contend they simply want to protect the voting rights of all citizens, and note that repeated studies have found no widespread fraud and no partisan benefit to expanded voting. “It’s an uninformed political calculation that certain elected Republican officials are making,” said Aaron Scherb of Common Cause.

The HEROES Act takes critical steps to help secure essential pillars of our democracy undermined by the COVID-19 pandemic while providing a huge boost to address the public health and economic crises. The bill provides important bulwarks to help safeguard our elections, the Census, the U.S. Postal Service, and includes enhanced oversight requirements for the stimulus package that were sorely lacking in CARES Act passed by Congress in late March.

Noting that the initial draft of the PPP did not have that “carve-in” for chains, Common Cause’s Beth Rotman, an expert in money and politics, told the Daily Beast, “Essentially a combination of wealthy special interests together with well-placed contributors at a critical moment bought a revision to our stimulus package that defined small business as including big business because they owned large franchises made up of hundreds of smaller entities. They were following the law they helped write.” 

Can the election be postponed? The experts say it cannot, "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," noted Sylvia Albert, director of voting and elections at Common Cause.