COVID19 and Upcoming Primary Election Dates

Disability Matters with Joyce Bender 

April 14, 2020 

 

Upcoming Primary Election Dates  

 

We want to remind voters that Primary Elections are still happening across the country.  Some states are have pushed back their Primary Election dates and others are considering or have decided to hold their vote entirely by mail.  

These issues are due to COVID 19 for several reasons:  

States are having a difficult time recruiting or maintaining their usual complement of poll workers during this pandemic.  Without an adequate number of poll workers for each polling places, counties will not be able to offer the same number of polling locations and it may be too late to reduce the number of polling locations without creating long lines and possibly running into trouble with numerous civil rights laws.    

Stay-at-Home Orders still in place and it would be impossible to hold a Primary Election while having to stay at home.  This is one reason Pennsylvania had to move its Primary Election from April to June 2. 

Vote by mail can be a secure way to create a paper trail; however, disability advocates know that we also need an accessible way to vote by mail.  A hand-marked paper ballot mailed to everyone’s home is not accessible for every person with a disability.  

What has changed?  

Ohio is the next state to host a Primary Election.  Ohio pushed their date back to April 28 and extended absentee voting to April 28. 

Kansas will hold their Presidential Primary on May 2, but all in-person voting has been canceled.  The vote will be by mail only. 

May 12 – Nebraska (no changes to voting) 

May 19 – Idaho and Oregon (no changes to voting) 

May 22 – Hawaii.  

Six (6) states moved their Primary Election day back to June 2nd.  These states are Connecticut, Delaware, Indiana, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island.  They join: District of Columbia, Iowa (State Primary), Montana, New Mexico, South Dakota as the original five (5) states who already scheduled June 2nd as their Primary date. 

In Pennsylvania, the counties with the largest number of COVID 19 cases are urging Governor Wolf to hold a mail-in ballot election. 

For a complete list of all Primary Election dates, visit, www.ncsl.org/research/elections-and-campaigns/2020-state-primary-election-dates.aspx 

#AdvocacyMatters.  Be sure to check the information in your state and vote.  Visit disabilityrightspa.org for the information today’s #AdvocacyMatters segment.