Last month, state Sen. Jen Metzger, D–Rosendale, introduced a bill
(S8120) requiring the state Board of Elections to create a vote-by-mail
election plan during emergencies, which would allow state residents to
cast June 2020 ballots via U.S. mail should the
current coronavirus crisis continue.
Her plan involves all eligible voters receiving and returning ballots
through the mail or delivering them to designated locations — just like
Oregon, Washington, Hawaii, Utah, and Colorado.
I applaud this step, and called my state senator, James Skoufis,
R-Cornwall, to urge him to sign on to Sen. Metzger's bill. The staffer I
spoke with said he has.
Yet we should not institute this reform merely in times of societal
disruption such as what we experience today, but use this opportunity to
incorporate a nationwide vote-by-mail system.
Already, U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer of Oregon and U.S. Senate counterpart
Ron Wyden have introduced “The Resilient Elections During Quarantines
and Natural Disasters Act of 2020,” intending to replicate nationwide
what their state has practiced since being passed
into law in 1998.
Rep. Antonio Delgado, D-Rhinebeck, should co-sponsor this bill.
In a nation with embarrassingly low voter turnout, being ordered to stay
home threatens the nomination process, not to mention the general
election.
It's time to vote through paper ballots by mail.
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