NPR: Need A Polling Place With Social Distancing? 3 NBA Teams Offer Venues. “Teams in the National Basketball Association, the American pro sports league long most vocal on social justice issues, are stepping up their civic participation, as three have now volunteered their facilities to serve as voting sites amid the pandemic. The development comes as local election officials, especially those in major metropolitan areas, frantically search for places that are centrally located and big enough to allow voters to social distance while waiting in line and casting their ballots.”
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PC World: Facebook now says it won’t even try to block 2020 election disinformation
PC World: Facebook now says it won’t even try to block 2020 election disinformation. “Can you trust what you read on Facebook? No. And why not? Because Facebook has now explicitly said that it will obey an executive order from President Trump and will refuse to fact-check misinformation and disinformation as American heads into the 2020 election.”
BuzzFeed News: Immigrants Delayed By The Coronavirus Are Suing To Be Naturalized In Time To Vote In The Presidential Election
BuzzFeed News: Immigrants Delayed By The Coronavirus Are Suing To Be Naturalized In Time To Vote In The Presidential Election. “A pair of would-be US citizens have filed a lawsuit to force immigration officials to schedule the oath ceremony they need to become Americans in time to register to vote in the presidential election this fall.”
Newsweek: Judge Threatens to Hold Tennessee in Contempt Over Not Allowing Coronavirus Fears as Valid Excuse for Mail-In Voting
Newsweek: Judge Threatens to Hold Tennessee in Contempt Over Not Allowing Coronavirus Fears as Valid Excuse for Mail-In Voting. “A judge in Tennessee has admonished the state for failing to follow her order allowing mail-in voting for those concerned about in-person voting due to the COVID-19 pandemic.”
NC Policy Watch: With state elections bill sleight of hand, GOP seeks to revive enjoined voter ID law
NC Policy Watch: With state elections bill sleight of hand, GOP seeks to revive enjoined voter ID law. “What started as a bipartisan effort to address the challenge of administering an election during the COVID-19 pandemic has devolved into a battle over another Republican attempt to require North Carolinians to show a photo ID to cast a ballot in November.”
TechCrunch: Vote. org founder launches VoteAmerica, a nonprofit using tech tools to help Americans vote by mail
TechCrunch: Vote. org founder launches VoteAmerica, a nonprofit using tech tools to help Americans vote by mail. “VoteAmerica’s goal is to boost voter turnout by helping people vote by mail. In a normal year that might mean striving to drive record turnout. But in the midst of the pandemic, the team is working to ensure that 2020’s presidential election turnout doesn’t slump like it would in a midterm election year.”
The Register: Remember when Republicans said Dems hacked voting systems to rig Georgia’s election? There were no hacks
The Register: Remember when Republicans said Dems hacked voting systems to rig Georgia’s election? There were no hacks. “On November 4th, 2018, now-Georgia Republican Governor Brian Kemp announced an investigation into his rival Democratic party, accusing the organization of trying to hack the US state’s voter registration system…. On Friday, ProPublica and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution revealed that the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) found ‘no evidence of damage to (the Secretary of State’s office) network or computers, and no evidence of theft, damage, or loss of data.'”
Poynter: How battleground states are preparing for the pandemic election’s massive increase in voting by mail
Poynter: How battleground states are preparing for the pandemic election’s massive increase in voting by mail. “About half of voters in Lee County, Florida, decided to cast their votes by mail in the past two statewide elections. Elections supervisor Tommy Doyle expects that to climb to 70% in November due to concerns about the COVID-19 pandemic. Doyle, a Republican in a conservative-leaning county that is home to Fort Myers, has encouraged voters to mail their ballots this year out of concern for their safety. He is sending information about voting by mail, with a postage-paid return envelope, to every address in the county. For voters who had already requested a ballot, he is sending a card to confirm that their address remains current. At the same time, Doyle is doing his best now to ensure that Election Day is safe for people who want or need to cast their ballots in person. ”
NBC News: 7 Wisconsin virus cases linked to in-person voting, health official says
NBC News: 7 Wisconsin virus cases linked to in-person voting, health official says. “Officials have identified seven people who appear to have contracted the coronavirus through activities related to the April 7 election in Wisconsin, Milwaukee’s health commissioner said. Commissioner Jeanette Kowalik said six of the cases involve Milwaukee voters and one is a Milwaukee poll worker, the Journal Sentinel reported.”
H-Kentucky: Laura Clay Papers now digitized and online at ExploreUK
H-Kentucky: Laura Clay Papers now digitized and online at ExploreUK. “The Laura Clay papers (dated 1819-1959, bulk 1906-1920; 13.63 cubic feet; 34 boxes, 2 folders, 3 items) consists of correspondence, pamphlets, periodicals, organizational records, petitions, scrapbooks, broadsides, programs, legal documents, and suffrage pins and ribbons, which document the career of Kentucky suffragist Laura Clay.”
Exclusive: Elizabeth Warren Has a Plan to Protect Your Right to Vote From the Coronavirus (Mother Jones)
Mother Jones: Exclusive: Elizabeth Warren Has a Plan to Protect Your Right to Vote From the Coronavirus. “Today, Warren is releasing a new plan—shared in advance exclusively with Mother Jones—that calls for a series of provisions in Congress’ next coronavirus recovery package that would protect voters’ ability to safely cast a ballot during the pandemic. The proposals would require states to mail a ballot to every registered voter with a prepaid return envelope, as is standing practice in states like Oregon and Washington; outline $4 billion in federal funding to help states transition to universal vote-by-mail before November (10 times what Congress allocated in its first recovery package); and say states should refrain from removing voters from registration rolls unless they can prove the person has moved or died since it will be very difficult for anyone removed to reregister during the outbreak.”
Poynter: Will COVID-19 change the way we vote come November?
Poynter: Will COVID-19 change the way we vote come November?. ” The coronavirus pandemic has forced more than a half dozen states to delay their Democratic primaries, with more states likely to follow. This has raised an urgent question: Could the pandemic still be dangerous enough in November that the general election will have to be held mostly or entirely by mail?”
Courier Journal: A new website allows 152,000 Kentucky felons to see if their voting rights were restored
Courier Journal: A new website allows 152,000 Kentucky felons to see if their voting rights were restored. “Nearly three months after restoring voting rights to many Kentuckians convicted of felonies who had completed sentences, Gov. Andy Beshear on Wednesday said the numbers of those restored totaled 152,000. On Wednesday, Beshear said the state has a new website with a searchable database for people to find out if their voting rights were restored.”
The Verge: The Verge Guide To The 2020 Election
The Verge: The Verge Guide To The 2020 Election. “At The Verge, we’ve always paid attention to how simple things like the price of broadband are deeply connected to complicated tech policy debates. And we’ve been closely watching the collision between social networks and democracy — Casey Newton has been writing a daily newsletter called The Interface tracking that subject since 2017. So for the 2020 election cycle, we want to give you a central place to learn about the main tech policy issues we’re following, see the latest news, and feel like you have a guide through it all.”
BusinessWire: Democracy Fund, UCLA Release First Dataset From Largest 2020 Public Opinion Study (PRESS RELEASE)
BusinessWire: Democracy Fund, UCLA Release First Dataset From Largest 2020 Public Opinion Study (PRESS RELEASE). “The Democracy Fund Voter Study Group and UCLA today released the first dataset from its massive study of the American electorate. The project completes roughly 6,250 interviews each week – totaling 500,000 interviews in advance of the 2020 election. This data release promotes a better understanding of Americans’ views in this vitally important election year.”
