Getting
your ballot witnessed/notarized stymies anti-pandemic effect
By
Attorneys for the American Civil
Liberties Union, the ACLU of Rhode Island, the Campaign Legal Center,
and the law firm Fried Frank filed a federal lawsuit challenging Rhode Island’s witness/notary requirements for voting by mail
throughout the 2020 elections.
The case was filed on behalf of two voting rights advocacy groups — Common Cause Rhode Island and the League of Women Voters Rhode Island — and Rhode Islanders with significant medical vulnerabilities that place them or members of their household at a heightened risk of severe illness or death if they contract COVID-19.
The lawsuit seeks to block
provisions of a state law that require Rhode Islanders who vote by mail to have
two witnesses or a notary sign their ballot envelope, even in the midst of a
highly contagious and deadly pandemic. These requirements necessitate face-to-face
and hand-to-hand interaction between voters and others who pose a potentially
fatal risk to the voters’ health.
EDITOR'S NOTE: The Republican National Committee (RNC) has filed a request with the court to intervene in this case, since fighting mail-in voting is a key part of national Republican voter suppression plans.
Joining them in this request to intervene is state Republican leader Brandon Bell and none other than Charlestown's Special Counsel for Indian Affairs, Joe Larisa. Joe appears to be taking some time off from his surveillance of the Narragansett Indian Tribe to take part in an effort to deprive ALL Rhode Islanders of their civil rights. Question: Will he be try to slip some of his costs onto Charlestown? - Will Collette
EDITOR'S NOTE: The Republican National Committee (RNC) has filed a request with the court to intervene in this case, since fighting mail-in voting is a key part of national Republican voter suppression plans.
Joining them in this request to intervene is state Republican leader Brandon Bell and none other than Charlestown's Special Counsel for Indian Affairs, Joe Larisa. Joe appears to be taking some time off from his surveillance of the Narragansett Indian Tribe to take part in an effort to deprive ALL Rhode Islanders of their civil rights. Question: Will he be try to slip some of his costs onto Charlestown? - Will Collette
“Removing the witness and notary requirement in the midst of a deadly pandemic is a common-sense solution that protects people’s health and their right to vote,” said Steven Brown, executive director of the ACLU of Rhode Island.
The individual plaintiffs
are:
Miranda
Oakley, 32, who is blind and unable to drive. She lives with her mother
and grandmother, but her grandmother is not capable of serving as a witness.
Oakley is concerned both about the risk of contracting COVID-19— and the risk
to herself, her mother, and her elderly grandmother — and about the potential
risk of passing COVID-19 on to others beyond her household, particularly given
that her mother works with people who are older. Accordingly, she is closely
adhering to social distancing guidelines.
Barbara
Monahan, 88, who lives alone and cannot drive due to a severe back
condition and, also due to this condition, is unable to vote in person. She is
concerned about the heightened risk of contracting COVID-19 that would arise if
she were forced to break social distancing guidelines in order to have her
ballot witnessed.
Mary
Baker, who has been diagnosed with asthma, hypertension and diabetes,
is deeply concerned about the heightened risk of contracting COVID-19 — and the
likely life-threatening or life-ending symptoms she would experience — if she
were forced to break social distancing guidelines to get her ballot witnessed.
“No one should have to choose between their health and their right
to vote,” said Common Cause Rhode Island Executive Director John Marion.
“Unfortunately, during this public health emergency, the witnesses-or-notary
requirement forces some voters to make that choice.”
As of mid-July, there have
been nearly 3. 5 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 and nearly 140,000 deaths
attributed to COVID-19 in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention. Rhode Island has had more than 18,000
confirmed cases and nearly 1,000 deaths so far. These figures almost certainly
understate the real numbers of COVID-19 victims, given the limitations in
testing.
The lawsuit notes that “mail
voting represents the best option for most Rhode Island voters to participate
safely in the 2020 elections,” but that “the voter-witness interaction required
by Rhode Island’s current mail voting procedure constitutes a violation of
recommended social distancing and creates a substantial risk of COVID-19
transmission.”
Former state Director of
Health Michael
Fine submitted an affidavit in support of this position,
emphasizing the risks that people particularly susceptible to serious illness
or death from COVID-19 will face if they must violate social distancing
guidelines in order to vote.
The suit points out that Rhode
Island is in a small minority of states that require witness signatures for
mail ballots. According to census data, more than 125,000 householders
live alone in Rhode Island, and of those, over 50,000 are 65 years and older
and, therefore at particular risk if they catch the disease.
The groups are asking the
court to block the state from enforcing the witness/notary requirements during
the September and November elections, and order it to issue guidance
instructing municipal election officials to count otherwise validly cast mail
ballots that are missing witness signatures.
“States need to make reasonable accommodations so voters can cast a ballot without unnecessary risk of contracting COVID-19,” said Jonathan Diaz, legal counsel, voting rights, at Campaign Legal Center.
“There are plenty of safeguards in place to protect the security of Rhode Island elections. Forcing people with disabilities or compromised health, or their family members, to find two witnesses to cast a ballot is unreasonable. The courts need to step in so that voters can participate safely.”
“The pandemic has shone a
bright light on the barriers facing our most vulnerable voters in Rhode Island.
Without relief from onerous laws like our witness requirement, these voters
will be disenfranchised,” said Jane Koster, president of the League of Women Voters of
Rhode Island.
“Senior citizens, Black, Latinx, disabled, and income-sensitive individuals are isolating because of their higher risk for serious illness from COVID-19. They cannot safely comply with the absentee ballot requirements to invite another person into their environment. These are the same communities who disproportionately struggle with ballot access, and now they are having to choose between their safety and their right to vote.”
“Senior citizens, Black, Latinx, disabled, and income-sensitive individuals are isolating because of their higher risk for serious illness from COVID-19. They cannot safely comply with the absentee ballot requirements to invite another person into their environment. These are the same communities who disproportionately struggle with ballot access, and now they are having to choose between their safety and their right to vote.”
More information on the case, Common Cause RI et. al.
v. Gorbea, including a copy of the
complaint can be found here.
EDITOR'S NOTE: For it's part, the Rhode Island Republican Party immediately issued a statement condemning the ACLU's suit:
EDITOR'S NOTE: For it's part, the Rhode Island Republican Party immediately issued a statement condemning the ACLU's suit:
The ACLU’s lawsuit is not about protecting public health. It is about undermining the integrity of our election. As a result, the Rhode Island Republican Party is preparing to intervene in this case to protect our democracy.” (RIGOP e-mail, July 23, 2020)The RI GOP draws on Donald Trump's outright lie that mail-in voting causes large-scale fraud, all evidence to the contrary. They also use an apples-and-oranges comparison of getting a ballot notarized and visits to a nursing home:
COVID-19 cannot be used as an excuse to eliminate safeguards against fraud. Rhode Island is in the middle of its Phase III reopening. If it is safe enough for 50 people to meet indoors, for nursing homes to accept visitors, then it is safe enough for a voter to have his or her mail ballot envelope signed by two witnesses or a notary. (RIGOP e-mail, July 23, 2020)- Will Collette
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