Voting & Elections

Government watchdog group Common Cause has called on all states to "expand vote-by-mail programs and absentee voting wherever possible." "This is a time for our country to be united to protect each other as we face COVID-19, and that includes rethinking the way we manage our elections in many states," Karen Hobert Flynn, the nonprofit's president, said in a press release.

Common Cause New York, a voting rights group, had called on Gov. Cuomo and state officials to consolidate the primary, contending that officials have made it clear that they won’t have the bandwidth to conduct an entirely absentee election by late April. “We don't have the infrastructure in place to do it quite frankly, so that's anything from having enough paper to print all the ballots, to making sure that we have prepaid postage, to make sure folks can return their ballot. It's a lot of smaller logistical decisions and preparations that would need to have started weeks ago,” Sarah Goff, the deputy director of Common Cause New York had previously said.

“If nothing changes by November, there will be a lot of voters who are disenfranchised,” said Sylvia Albert, voting and elections director for good-government watchdog Common Cause.

"States need to make critical investments in their election infrastructure," said Sylvia Albert, the director of voting and elections at the nonpartisan group Common Cause. She said the $400 million in the stimulus package was a "step in the right direction" but not enough. "What is important that we establish a system where people can feel safe about exercising their right to vote," Albert said. She added that means having numerous options available to voters.

“Every Texan needs should be able to safely register to vote and cast their ballot whether by mail or in person,” Anthony Gutierrez, Executive Director of Common Cause Texas, said in a statement. “The way we make that happen is to use these funds to implement online voter registration, expand vote by mail, extend early voting, recruit more election workers, and ensure all poll sites meets public health safety standards.”

The $400 million is welcome, but not nearly enough, said Karen Hobert Flynn, president of Common Cause. “Given the recent health crisis, states and localities immediately need significantly more resources to make critical investments to ensure that all voters can participate in free, fair, orderly and safe elections this year, or else millions of voters could be disenfranchised,” she said.