jonetta rose barras: Is voter depression/suppression coming to DC for the June 2 election? Maybe.

The DC Council mandated last week in its COVID-19 Response Supplemental Emergency Act of 2020 that the DC Board of Elections mail a ballot request form to every eligible voter for the June 2 primary and the June 16 Ward 2 special election. That move and the decision to substantially reduce the number of voting centers from 144 precincts citywide to only 20 sites on June 2 and two on June 16 seem designed to force voting by mail sans an accompanying law.

Some people may think that means the District won’t end up like Milwaukee, Wisconsin, with people in long lines during a hailstorm waiting to enter a polling station to cast their ballot. Only five of the usual 180 sites in that city were open.

Think again. 

Dorothy Brizill, co-director of DC Watch, a government watchdog group that has focused for decades on election issues in the city, said the concept of voting-by-mail “sounds good. But they never think of the practical application.”

“Even before COVID-19. I was concerned — and shared it with anybody who listened — about the [board’s] preparation for upcoming elections,” added Brizill.

Undoubtedly, DC has allowed absentee voting for many years without requiring an explanation or justification. But it’s never so dramatically reduced the number of precincts open on the day of the election. The mail-in efforts being organized for this year’s primary are on a larger scale than DC has undertaken before, and there are only about seven weeks for planning and execution. 

Alice Miller, executive director of the BOE, said the changes are necessary to minimize exposure to COVID-19 and to comply with the mayor’s declaration of a public health emergency. “While we knew it would not only be a challenge to operate 144 precincts based on the need to properly staff the locations, to do so would also be irresponsible — especially given the fact that the majority of our workers are members of the at-risk population,” she added in an email exchange with me last week. Another factor she noted for the decision was that the “availability of many of our precinct locations could not be guaranteed.”

Mail-in ballots must be requested no later than May 26. The ballots must be postmarked June 2 and received no later than June 9. Anything received after that date would not be counted. “We have to have a cut off somewhere,” said Miller.

Interestingly, the U.S. Postal Service doesn’t postmark all mail. That was one of the problems in Milwaukee when ballots were discovered without a postmark and were not counted. Miller countered that DC voters can drop their ballots off at one of the 20 voting centers, which will also serve as early voting sites beginning May 22.  

Wait, wait. If the idea is to reduce the number of people coming to voting precincts, isn’t giving people extra reason to come to polling centers contradictory?

Planning for this mail-in process appears inadequate. There is little evidence so far of an aggressive citywide public information campaign. While the District has reduced the number of in-person polling sites on Election Day, there seems to have been little thought given as to how to provide transportation options for voters who do not have cars, particularly if bus and subway services are still reduced by the time of the elections. The ultimate result could be that voting would be suppressed or depressed, albeit unintentionally, said several people with whom I spoke. 

“That’s definitely a recipe for disaster. I don’t think most voters are even aware of the changes,” DC Democratic State Committee chair Charles Wilson said during a telephone conversation with me earlier this week. 

Wilson leads the city’s largest political party organization. Yet it appears he wasn’t consulted about some of the changes. Until I told him, he hadn’t realized the drastic reduction of polling sites.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if the voter turnout is much lower than we expected,” said Wilson. “There needs to be time to educate voters on this new option.”

Patrick Kennedy, a candidate for the Ward 2 council seat, has worked previously at several voting centers in the city. “Obviously it’s not optimal. If it were optimal, we would have been doing this all along.” Admitting that he’s “personally not sold on voting by mail,” he calculated that for the primary to be successful, the city “would need 80% to 90%” of people who requested ballots mailing them back.

Strong turnout is essential to the spirit of democracy. “Not having that is going to hurt. The question is how much,” added Kennedy, who faces seven other opponents including former Ward 2 Council member Jack Evans in the Democratic primary.

Truth be told, the District has rarely had the turnout Kennedy would like to see. In the 2018 primary, only about 19% of registered voters cast ballots, according to election results from the BOE. It was only a bit higher — 22% — for the 2016 presidential primary.

I am no fan of voting by mail either. Women and African Americans fought long and hard for the right to vote. Each trip to a precinct reaffirms and celebrates that history. 

Some might say the danger posed by the spread of the coronavirus is forcing these changes. But voting should always be considered essential business in a democratic society. If we can wear a mask and gloves to pick up carryout, then we can do the same to go to the polls on Election Day. It provides an opportunity to directly strengthen a community’s civic culture, creating moments for neighbors to discuss issues and develop strategies for improving their government and their quality of life. None of that can be done inside a mail slot.

Consider this fact: More than 74% or 73,949 of the ballots cast in the 2016 primary came on Election Day; 19,153 ballots were cast during early voting. There were 7,321 absentee or special ballots cast.

One final confession: I’m not alone in lacking confidence in the Elections Board. Let us count the ways it has created disaster from a simple task: There were the late or incorrect voters guides back in 2006. Then, there were voters guides with the DC flag printed upside down in 2014. There was the time it took the agency all night to count votes, also in 2014. Recently, it sent out voter registration cards with the wrong date for this year’s primary.

Have mercy.

“We are working extremely hard under very difficult circumstances to do everything we can to ensure that staff, voters and poll workers are safe and that every vote is counted,” said Miller in defense of her agency. 

She said the agency’s office has been closed since April 6, after “two members of the staff had experienced symptoms of the virus after exposure from members of the public during the nominating petition challenge period.” Those individuals are “currently quarantined and under medical observation.” Other staff have been teleworking. 

Still, Miller argued that her agency is up to the task. The board has been preparing for the primary election since last spring, she said. They have trained poll workers. Procurement and various purchases have also occurred. 

Admittedly COVID-19 has forced modifications in business activities of many if not all government agencies.  Still, it’s hard to understand why the BOE couldn’t find more than 20 polling sites to open on the day of the June 2 primary.

Further, given the massive unemployment being experienced in the city, couldn’t the board have recruited other poll workers? (Amazon just announced it is hiring 75,000 additional workers.) Couldn’t the BOE have asked the mayor to bring in members of the DC National Guard to assist in poll centers, ensuring a safe and smooth election without the potential of disenfranchising large numbers of voters?

“The board and the staff are committed to ensuring the success of the elections, as always. Nothing less will suffice,” Miller said. 

Achieving a successful vote-by-mail operation is a huge hurdle with so little time. As of April 15, the BOE had received only 15,000 requests for mail-in ballots. 

The change has placed an enormous burden on candidates and their campaigns. They were already improvising their activities, dealing with the mayor’s stay-at-home order. 

Incumbents like Ward 4’s Brandon Todd have had to deal with issues related to COVID-19 and the economic fallout from associated closures. Recently he held a teleconference in which 2,600 people participated. On a parallel track he has had to manage his campaign. For that, he also has resorted to the internet. Not every voter has online access, and even those who do may not be adept in dealing with Zoom or various social media platforms, he said. 

“The change puts a subset of voters at a disadvantage,” Todd told me this week during a telephone interview. “I don’t want anyone to be disadvantaged. I’ve called residents and encouraged them to pull out those neighborhood phone trees. 

“We’re going to spend the next 50 or so days doing all we can to reach people,” he added.

His chief opponent, Janeese Lewis George, has also relied on the internet, teleconferencing to meet her potential voters. On Wednesday she held a “virtual conference” on education; a week earlier, she participated in an online town hall on environmental justice.

Last week, Ward 7 Council member Vincent Gray, who faces five opponents in the primary, sent out an email with the subject line “We Shall Overcome.”

“We cannot allow anyone to be disenfranchised. By working together, we will stop the coronavirus crisis from robbing us of our rights,” he wrote, giving readers instructions on how to request their “Vote-by-Mail ballot for the June 2nd Democratic Primary.” He urged them to pass the word to their “family, friends, and neighbors.”

Kennedy in Ward 2 said that despite the mayor’s shutdown he thinks his campaign is “well-positioned.” Like the others, he has used webinars, virtual meet and greets and direct mailers to connect with voters. “I’ve been running for a year. So much of this is neighbors talking to neighbors.”

However, a poll he conducted last month found that 44% of those surveyed were undecided. Attracting a large percentage of that population to his campaign is made more difficult under the current circumstances. Having to also convince them to request mail-in ballots or trek to some remote location to vote doesn’t make it any easier. “We are trying to make the most of a difficult situation,” said Kennedy.

“What I’m worried about is does the [BOE] have enough manpower” to pull this off, he said. He requested a ballot for himself more than a week ago but has yet to receive confirmation. “We need to look at detailing other government workers. Otherwise [the BOE] won’t be able to process the requests. 

“Then we need to make sure they can do the count on the back end,” continued Kennedy. “This is like a five-alarm.”

That may be an understatement. 

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jonetta rose barras is an author and freelance journalist, covering national and local issues including politics, childhood trauma, public education, economic development and urban public policies. She can be reached at thebarrasreport@gmail.com.