Vote-By-Mail Should Go Nationwide In Pandemic, Sen. Booker Says – Montclair, NJ Patch

ESSEX COUNTY, NJ — According to U.S. Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey, voters who cast ballots via mail in the Garden State’s primary election Tuesday should feel lucky. After all, they had a choice that millions of other Americans may not enjoy this November, he said.

On Thursday, Booker pushed to make vote-by-mail a “nationwide option” for all U.S. voters in an online petition.

“Our primary election in New Jersey happened on Tuesday, and thanks to our state’s vote-by-mail option, millions of voters had the option to safely cast their ballots by mail as we continue to live through this dangerous pandemic. But vote-by-mail isn’t a nationwide option for all voters. As new confirmed coronavirus cases continue to rise and we quickly move closer to the general election, the U.S. Senate has failed to act to protect voters’ health and safety.”

Booker continued:

“That means come November, millions of Americans could be waiting in long lines for hours at a limited number of polling places to cast their ballot, like we saw in states like Wisconsin and Georgia earlier this spring. No one should have to put their health and safety at risk like that in order to participate in our democracy. To deny voters the option of voting by mail is to suppress the vote in this critical election year, and with so much at stake, we need to do everything in our power to make it as easy as possible for every voter to exercise their most basic Constitutional right.”

“Time is running out to pass federal vote-by-mail before the 2020 election, so we need to act fast,” Booker wrote.

In May, Booker introduced a bill he said would “expand access to the ballot” amid the coronavirus crisis. In addition to other initiatives, the bill would expand early voting to 20 days preceding a federal election, allow voters to register online, and make vote-by-mail an option along with in-person voting.

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