Vote-By-Mail

“We were saying, in Pennsylvania you have to pass something to deal with pre-processing,” said Sylvia Albert, director of voting and elections for Common Cause, a nonprofit active in monitoring elections. “To me, at this point, it is purposeful. They want chaos. If you refuse to pass laws, you are asking for what’s next.” ... The lies Republicans spread about the post-election vote count highlight a mostly overlooked aspect of elections: that they do not end on Election Day. Ballots must be processed, counted, canvassed and certified. When elections are extremely close, recounts may be in order depending on each state’s recount laws.  “In the past, election protection broadly has been about focusing on how we are preparing up to the election ― the day before and the day of the election,” said Quentin Turner, director of Common Cause Michigan. “But in the past couple years, that has changed. The days leading up to and on Election Day are the pregame. The work continues on in just as an intense way after the election. And that is where the most opportunities are for people who want to sow discord or doubt in the process.”

Although significant attention has focused on the more than 400 anti-voter bills introduced (several dozen of which have become law) in state legislatures since the insurrection, some federal bills also portend a dangerous trend. Congressional Republicans have introduced more than 30 anti-voter bills since the insurrection that have largely gone unnoticed. These anti-voter bills telegraph what congressional MAGA Republicans would like to do: make it harder for certain Americans to vote.

A new report from Common Cause, “Extremists’ Plot to Nationalize Voter Suppression: 2023 and Beyond,” examines a new wave of anti-voter bills that have been introduced by Republicans in Congress representing an attempt to nationalize voter suppression. These extremist bills have largely been ignored by the public and the media, but should Republicans gain control of the U.S. House or Senate, these bills would represent a serious threat to the freedom to vote for millions of Americans.

"It's pretty common to see both sides of the aisle throw down lawsuits in the weeks leading up to an election," said Sylvia Albert, director of voting and elections for Common Cause. "What's different about litigation this year is it's directly tied to the 2020 election and the 'big lie,' meant to discourage voters from coming out to cast a ballot, and to lower their confidence in the outcome of our elections."

"It felt very much like the national effort to vilify and stop absentee voting," said Susan Lerner, executive director of Common Cause New York, a good government advocacy group.

Today, the Council of the District of Columbia unanimously passed the Elections Modernization Amendment Act, which makes permanent several changes implemented in 2020 because of COVID, including: providing all DC registered voters with a postage-prepaid mail in ballot; making permanent the Vote Centers, where any registered DC voter can vote in-person; and making permanent the accessible ballot drop boxes. It also builds on the promise of guaranteeing all citizens in DC the right to vote.