primaries this year were a disaster. Here’s what needs to happen to be best for November

Pennsylvania primary on June 2 was not a disaster, but have no problem to go either. Even before COVID-19, the government had been working to make it easier for residents to vote without leaving their homes. With the raging pandemic and streets full of demonstrators, an unprecedented number of people close to 2 million voted for voting by mail. Those who do not find their options limited: due to a shortage of election workers in Philadelphia, for example, the number of seats decreased by 77%. election officials were overwhelmed by the influx of mail ballot in a state where less than 5% had already voted by mail. Under state law, they were to open that mail cards only after the polls closed was not allowed. It took several days for the next race declared a winner, and the fact that many of the ballots counted late Democratic were some people did what was going on suspicion behind the scenes. Meanwhile, thousands of ballots arrived too late to count, the disenfranchise voters who had cast. To prevent crawling of how to prepare the country for the unprecedented elections in November, problems like Pennsylvania, is a top priority. The last months of primaries gave Member States the opportunity to test run their electoral systems performance under the pressure of a pandemic, and the results were mixed. Some primaries were relatively seamless; Other states, like New York and Wisconsin, the senior suffered meltdowns. But many, like Pennsylvania, were somewhere in between, according to a new comprehensive report by the bipartisan National Task Force for the electoral crisis. remedy the problems that plagued the primaries, all these problems can be avoided in November, but it will take better planning, more resources, changes to state law and a massive outreach effort of the voters, the report concludes. “The nation has the ability to learn from his experiences during the primaries and improvement for the general election,” said the report, which was brought to its publication exclusively available on Thursday TIME. “In fact, it is imperative that we make to ensure the participation in the elections and the maximization of confidence in the results to be guaranteed.” In the US election administration varies from state to state, county to county, community to community. The Task Force, a group of fair-election interest of more than 50 election experts, security, and management hopes that its recommendations can serve as a set of best practices for local officials scrambling to ensure that November goes as smoothly as possible. For the entire system to pivot so quickly in the middle of the pandemic is a big challenge, but if not, it is no less vulnerable than the integrity of the nation’s democratic system. Recommendations include expanding early voting at polling stations on the day of elections to avoid pushing; making it easier to apply, send and ballots cast by mail count; Ensuring seats are occupied, provided with protective equipment and conveniently located; and management of public expectations as extended voice does not count because of suspicion. election officials should use the National Guard if necessary, the report said, but be careful never done and in uniform. You should expand curbside and Auffahrts vote, work and invest in coordinating monitoring methods to improve transparency. A sense that matters in Washington. Subscribe to daily direct current, short newsletter. The task force was organized by Protect democracy, tries to maintain a national non-profit, democratic standards and the rule of law. While Protect democracy is usually anti-Trump, the Task Force extends across the entire political spectrum, including Republicans such as former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and Lanhee Chen Hoover Institution, as well as representatives of liberal institutions -pendente as the Carter Center and public citizens. “Backed result the only elections this group,” the website announced the task force “is that the election is free and fair.” Although many of the recommendations, such as common sense seems to show the primaries far from certain States things were correct. New York has been so ill-prepared, the volume of voting by correspondence to handle that some races were not mentioned as a month. In Wisconsin, where the shortage of election workers for too few seats increased, prevented partisan disagreements that the state of predictable questions. The primary season, the report noted, was “characterized by a rapidly changing landscape of the rules and processes as election officials tackled the crown pandemic.” Members more time to prepare and plan in November, but with the presidency on the line, and the height of the turnout and partisan passion will be much greater. Although President Donald Trump is not mentioned explicitly in the report that the analysis includes a section to accept the results of the general election. “No candidate should use potentially difficult circumstances in November, to restore confidence in the final outcome of the general election to undermine” directed the states of the task force, a not-so-fine line to the President who sowed doubts again about the ‘integrity must accept the elections and to commit to the results previously rejected. The primaries, the report points out, in the final analysis, the candidates accepted the results were also primary in Kentucky Democratic and Republican Senate Utah gubernatorial primary with technical problems or long accounting periods. Trump expressed particular charges of voting by mail, a practice that has reached this year due COVID-19 levels unprecedented. absentee ballot increased by 27 times in Rhode Iceland, for example, and 24 times in Maryland. A postal voting has been used by a majority of primary voters in 25 states, while in most of the states to make it in 2018. Moreover, for less than 30% because the e-mail cards are generally considered counted accessible and appropriate has called on the Task Force election officials and the media to them as “absentee ballot” refer to different states, voting by correspondence have universal. unsaid left of the report, the potential of this talk is to avoid biased stigma. Other recommendations, the task force is making the right choice of running the fund, calling on state and federal governments to provide more money to spend. While Congress allocated $400 million in March this purpose by law CARES additional funds seek state election officials. Democrats in Congress have pushed for a wider choice of funding, but Republicans oppose Congress in general, it is to make one of the many critical points to get the negotiations for relief legislation more federal Crown stalled. Above all, the report pointed out, as election administrators quickly. implement fully the window and benefit from many of these recommendations quickly ends. As the report put it: “The state and local officials need to act now to prepare for general elections in order to ensure safe participation of all eligible voters and confidence in the maximized result.”
Picture copyright by Matt Slocum – AP