Impact2020: May 19, 2020
Welcome to your Impact2020 briefing for Tuesday, May 19. Voting wraps up in Oregon’s primaries, Michigan’s secretary of state moves to expand mail balloting and a final look at Wisconsin’s controversial spring elections.
On the Ground
Election Day
While several states have shifted to all-mail elections in response to the coronavirus pandemic, that process has already been in place for several cycles in Oregon. Ballots must be submitted by 8 p.m. local time today to count for the statewide primary elections, where voter turnout topped 30% on Monday, The Oregonian’s Betsy Hammond reports.
That’s slightly behind where it was at this point four years ago, when statewide turnout for the 2016 primaries reached 54%. “To match that, Oregon voters would need to deliver an avalanche of more than 400,000 ballots on Tuesday, the final day of voting -- something they normally accomplish only in November general elections.”
Hammond also notes that “this was the first year that Oregonians could mail in their ballots without finding or paying for a stamp, as lawmakers approved prepaid postage for ballot return envelopes.”
Idaho, meanwhile, is experimenting with an all-mail primary for the first time amid the COVID-19 outbreak. Voters are not automatically sent a ballot, so they must request one by 8 p.m. local time today and return it by June 2.
In the state’s most populous county, Ada, the Idaho Statesman’s Cynthia Sewell writes that the number of ballot requests has been historic.
“In Ada County, 116,475 ballots have been issued as of May 18,” according to the state’s election office. “For comparison, in a similar primary election in 2016, just over 35,000 total ballots were cast. Each ballot request is processed individually and the large volume has resulted in delays in mailing ballots to voters.”
Absentee for all
Michigan is on track to follow in Oregon and Idaho’s footsteps. Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson said all of Michigan’s 7.7 million registered voters will be mailed absentee ballot applications for the August primaries and November general elections, reports Todd Spangler for the Detroit Free Press.
Credit: David Eggert, AP
“Benson, in a move likely to anger some Republicans and potentially lead to a court battle, said the threat posed by the spread of coronavirus, which has already killed 4,915 Michiganders since March but has been on the decline in recent weeks, is still too great to consider having people go en masse to the polls to vote.”
Benson, a Democrat, also noted that in “local elections held across the state on May 5, turnout was up significantly from other years and that the vast majority of voters cast absentee ballots by mail or through a drop box.”
Warning sign
A new report from the Wisconsin Elections Commission provides a comprehensive look at the issues that plagued the state’s April elections.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Patrick Marley reports that “nearly 2,700 absentee ballots in Milwaukee were not sent and about 1,600 in the Fox Valley were not processed because of computer glitches and mailing problems”
In Milwaukee, about half of those that did not receive an absentee ballot voted either with replacement ballots or at the polls, while the others did not vote.
“The state could face even larger difficulties in the August primary and November general election,” Marley writes. “More than 3 million Wisconsinites are expected to vote in the presidential election, twice as many as did in April. That could mean 1.8 million voters requesting mail-in ballots — compared to the record 964,000 cast by mail in April.”
Trail Mix
Election disruption
More people voted by mail than in-person on the first day of early voting in Georgia (26,000 compared to 15,000), Mark Niesse reports for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Nearly 415,000 Georgians have voted in the June 9 primary election so far.
Philadelphia elections officials are putting 92,000 absentee ballot applications and promotional fliers in food boxes to try to reach low-income voters, Jonathan Lai reports for the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Lai also reports that Montgomery County, Pa., officials likely sent out “tens of thousands” of absentee ballots with flawed instructions, but election officials say they will still be able to count the votes.
Veepstakes
The Detroit News’ Craig Mauger reports that since March 15, no politician has made more appearances on national Sunday morning TV news shows than Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.
Battle for Congress
Teresa Tomlinson’s Georgia Senate campaign is urging Democratic leaders not to “squander” the chance to oust GOP Sen. David Perdue by rallying behind her primary rival, Jon Ossoff, Greg Bluestein reports for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio will temporarily chair the Senate Intelligence Committee while the FBI investigates North Carolina Sen. Richard Burr’s stock transactions, Alex Daugherty reports for the Miami Herald.
Number of the Day
230
That’s how many more white voters (268,585) than black voters (268,355) participated in the 2020 South Carolina Democratic presidential primary, according to the state’s election commission. By comparison, exit polls showed that the 2016 South Carolina Democratic primary electorate was 60% black.
For planning purposes
May 19
Oregon’s all-mail primary concludes
Jill Biden holds virtual events in Colorado
Joe Biden holds a virtual fundraiser and then participates in a virtual Yahoo News town hall with chef José Andrés
May 20
Joe Biden holds virtual events in Wisconsin
Vice President Mike Pence visits a nursing home in Orlando, Fla.
May 21
Govs. Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas and Laura Kelly of Kansas visit the White House
Trump visits the Ford Motor Co. plant in Ypsilanti, Mich.
Jill Biden holds virtual events in Georgia
May 22
Hawaii primary
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