EP. 10 — THE SHOW MUST GO ON

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Weston Wamp: I’m Weston Wamp, and this is Swamp Stories. 

If we’ve learned anything in the last several weeks, it’s to not underestimate the extent to which a pandemic can affect life in America.

Take for example, the world of sports. Everything was normal until the evening of March 11th. 

Scott Van Pelt: The Thunder and the Jazz were on the floor as Royce Young had reported. They were moments away from tipoff. A Thunder doctor came sprinting from the locker room.

Weston Wamp: In an instant that basketball game was cancelled and the NBA season was suspended. Within 48 hours, the beloved NCAA basketball tournament was cancelled and the Masters golf tournament was postponed.

As the reality set in that this was a contagious and deadly virus, for which a vaccine does not exist, it became clear that life as we know it in 2020 was going to change.

But no one got the attention of people in my home state of Tennessee like ESPN college football commentator Kirk Herbstreit. 

Kirk Herbstreit: Even if this curve is flattened out, this virus is still out there. I’ll be shocked honestly, I haven’t talked with anybody, but I’ll be shocked if we have NFL football this fall, if we have college football. Be so surprised if that happens.  

Weston Wamp: As much as I love college football, and as a University of Tennessee alum, you better believe I do, there’s another, far more important feature event in the fall of 2020 that will also be affected by the coronavirus pandemic. But this one can’t be cancelled and it can’t be postponed.

This is Episode 10, The Show Must Go On.

Weston Wamp: On November 3rd of this year, we will elect a President, along with members of Congress and countless state legislators across the country. The peaceful transition of power that will follow — whether it is the incumbent president beginning a second term or a new president being inaugurated — is as much a hallmark of our democratic republic as any single tradition.

Through a civil war and two world wars, we held elections ... undeterred. After September 11th, we held elections, and we will do it again in the face of a once-in-a-century pathogen.

But something is different this time around: Seton Hall University recently ran public polling showing that 72% of Americans would not attend a sporting event until a vaccine is available. Around the same time, Pew released a poll around the same time revealing that 66% of voters would not be comfortable voting in person.

Denise Merrill: Well, I think not only do we have a coronavirus crisis, we have a democracy crisis, because what's going to happen, in my worst nightmare, my fear is that no one votes because they're much more fearful of contracting a disease than they are of not voting. 

Weston Wamp: That was the voice of Denise Merrill, Connecticut’s no-nonsense Secretary of State, who spoke to me about the challenges we could face come November. 

Denise Merrill: The bottom line is no one should have to choose between their health and their vote, and people feel this very deeply.

Weston Wamp: Now I feel like I’ve heard it all, but there’s no argument here. People shouldn’t have to choose between voting and their health. If voting is at a historic low, that would be a disaster. It would cause people to question the results of an election — and even our very democracy.

In some ways, the problem is this simple. Up until now, the majority of Americans, the overwhelming majority, normally vote in-person. 

So there’s going to be chaos if two things don’t happen — first, states have to be ready for massive spikes in absentee ballot voting, which every state already allows. A handful of states, like Colorado, Utah, and Washington, already conduct their elections mosty by mail, and early voting is pretty much ubiquitous. Second, in-person voting needs to be made safe, for voters and poll workers alike. 

But most states aren’t even close to ready for this, regardless of which party is in charge — and they’re in for a world of hurt if they don’t have the resources to make their elections safe and secure.

Michael Steele: Mass confusion. Mass confusion, a great deal of anxiety among the voting population ... And at the end of the day, we're trying to create some stability. We don't want a confused process for the general election in November.

Weston Wamp: That was former RNC chair Michael Steele, a conservative from Maryland and a fierce advocate for action now to avoid a catastrophe, or what we in Tennessee would call a dumpster fire, this fall. 

Michael Steele: Elections in the fall will be different, and we should not assume that they won't be, that somehow come September, October, we will magically fall back into the routine, whatever that is in our daily lives and whatever that may be in the electoral process.

Weston Wamp: And of course that’s backed up by the experts:

Dr. Anthony Fauci: In fact, I would anticipate that that would actually happen because of the degree of transmissibility. 

Weston Wamp: That, of course, was Dr. Anthony Fauci who, if he wasn’t already, is now certainly one of the most trusted men in America.

We got a sneak preview of the chaos that nearly every state could experience this November when Wisconsin held it’s primary elections in early April.

Woman: They’re telling us to stay in the house and, you know, stand six feet from each other, but then they’re forcing us to come out here in a group. Stop playing politics with our lives.

Weston Wamp: Let’s take Milwaukee for example. Population 600,000 people, and there are normally 180 polling locations. But due to a shortage of poll workers, there were only 5 open. And that is why you saw images on TV of people in masks, standing in long lines in the rain wrapped around buildings. Meanwhile, requests for mail-in ballots were up over 400%, causing some voters to receive their ballots after the election had already passed. 

Now, as we’ve covered before: the U.S. Constitution explicitly gives states the power to run elections, even for candidates for federal office. But, in this moment of extreme uncertainty and in the middle of a pandemic, they are going to need financial help from Congress to make sure elections are safe, fair, and secure — and they’re going to have to  pull all that together in a hurry.

Michael Steele: At this point, what I'm talking about, and a lot of advocates like myself on the right are talking about, is allowing the states the flexibility with the help and support of the federal government to grant full, unfettered access to the ballot box given the nature of the crisis that we're in.

Weston Wamp: Now there already is one piece of good news: Due to pressure from a lot of groups and leaders across the political spectrum — including Steele’s group, the US Vote Foundation — Congress allocated $400 million in election funding in its Phase three COVID-19 stimulus bill — but that is really just a down payment — a fraction of what states are going to actually need. 

Ultimately, it’s going to be the responsibility of Secretaries of States and local election officials across the country to adjust on the fly and prepare for the unknown. And nothing about that is going to be easy.

Michael Steele: This doesn't happen with the flip of a switch … That requires having resources in place to have those ballots printed, to process those ballots, to get those ballots mailed out. 

Weston Wamp: Like I said earlier, every state in the union already has some form of absentee voting, and many states — 33 to be exact — don’t require you to have a reason for doing so, like being out of town or being ill. Others do, like Denise’s state of Connecticut, or my home state Tennessee, which allows absentee ballots, but only to people over 60 or in other very specific categories. But a solution that may work in Connecticut and could work other places, is to add “pandemic” to the list of excuses so that more people can vote safely from home.

Denise Merrill: But it's been a long process coming, and all of a sudden this has thrust us into a situation where we just need that flexibility so that everyone would be able to vote despite being ill, being afraid of being ill, potentially being ill, and a great fear that the polling places are no longer safe.

Weston Wamp: We’ll be right back.

Weston Wamp: Welcome back to Swamp Stories.

You won’t be surprised to learn that this issue has become a bit partisan at the national level. Some Democrats have been pushing for universal vote-by-mail, and President Trump has been vocally speaking out against mail voting, which he says, quote, “for some reason doesn’t work out well for Republicans” end quote. But a new academic study came out that found, well, that’s actually not true. It’s pretty even between the parties. 

But all the partisan takes about so-called vote-by-mail miss an important point: every state has had some system for absentee voting for ages.

And, in fact, there’s something interesting going on: Increasingly, we’re seeing leadership in the states on these issues, and a lot of it is coming from Republicans, taking a look at ways that we can prepare for the November elections.

Take Maryland for example, Governor Hogan, one of the most popular politicians in America, postponed their April primary to June and said it will primarily be a mail-in ballot election. Some polls will still be open, but people will be encouraged to use absentee ballots. West Virginia, which is a pretty red state, is sending absentee voting applications to every registered voter for their May presidential primary. Republicans in Missouri, they’re working to expand options, and the Republican governor of New Hampshire has announced his state is exploring options like “drive-up” voting in November. 

From a public health perspective, this is necessary. But it’s also smart politics.

Michael Steele: You have to realize who is affected by this virus. And for Republicans, it's a lot of our voters who are 50+ years old, who are reliable voters. 

Weston Wamp: That said, Steele points out it’s a fool's errand to try to find some partisan advantage in the middle of a pandemic. 

Michael Steele: Pandemics are not partisan, so no party gets a particular advantage, because the coronavirus doesn't know if you're a Republican or Democrat, it just knows you have cells that they can attack in your body.

Weston Wamp: One size fits all policy rarely works for all 50 states in America. States have wide latitude to decide for themselves what they need. 

And while absentee ballots and early voting are valuable tools, they are not the only things we have to explore — and they’re not a complete substitute for people voting in-person. And states that have nearly all mail systems, it took years for them to get there. So even if states wanted to, it would be nearly impossible for them to totally transition at this late date in an election year. 

Denise Merrill: Many of us have systems that are very paper heavy. You have to mail applications out to people. People have to ask for applications, first of all. None of this is online, at least in my state. So, to ramp up that system would take years, literally, and a lot of resources, money.

Weston Wamp: That means that while expanding absentee ballots is part of the equation to making November work, we’ve also got to make sure that polls are open and safe and accessible on Election Day. 

Michael Steele: Who works the polls in most elections? People over 50, over 60 years old. They're our volunteer base, but now they're in that class of individuals who are much more susceptible to falling ill, and therefore, they're going to be much more cautious about going to work a poll.

Weston Wamp: According to the Brennan Center, more than 50% of poll workers are categorized as being in a vulnerable population group by coronavirus experts. So solving this might require states offering more pay to recruit younger poll workers, or expanding early voting options to try to avoid long lines on election day like the ones we just saw in Wisconsin.

What can't be missed in all this is that states are already under immense and unexpected financial pressure. Many states passed emergency budgets and some were forced to slash spending to prioritize the coronavirus. Inevitably state tax revenues will be down, just as states are realizing that secure elections in 2020 are going to cost a heck of a lot more money than normal. And what this leads us to is not always the conclusion that a conservative like me wants.

But Congress has to act decisively, Congress has to act now, because the stakes couldn’t be higher for both parties — and our country — with this November’s election. 

Michael Steele: We're not advocating necessarily a permanent change. We're just looking at the 2020 cycle given the unprecedented situation we find ourselves in right now, what we're trying to do is get everybody on the same page, at least right now, to allow folks to access the ballot box in November.

Denise Merrill: We have to make this work. I think this has in a way, in an odd sort of way, brought us all together.

Weston Wamp: It was ever so briefly, but in late March, Republicans and Democrats in the House and Senate put their partisan differences aside to bring historic relief to try to save the economy in the face of the coronavirus pandemic. Now they have to do the same to save the election. 

And to be clear, you and I have a very real and immediate responsibility here to pressure local and state officials to act fast to prepare for what promises to be an unusual election season — and to push Congress to provide the funding that states are going to need. 

Because the show must go on.

On Episode 11 of Swamp Stories, we’re going to tell what may be the most encouraging story of the 116th Congress. We’re going to talk to a couple private citizens who took on quite an ambitious project….to fix Congress. And sure enough, their work was instrumental in the creation of a historic select committee to modernize the peoples’ house. And we’ll talk to a few members of Congress who were tapped to serve on that select committee.

Thanks for listening to Swamp Stories, presented by Issue One, the country's leading political reform organization that unites Republicans, Democrats, and independents to fix our broken political system. Please subscribe to the podcast and share it with your friends. Even better? Rate and review it on iTunes to help us reach more listeners. You can find out more at swampstories.org. I'm your host, Weston Wamp. A special thank you to executive producer, Ethan Rome, producers Evan Ottenfeld and Sydney Richards, and editor Parker Tant from ParkerPodcasting.com. Swamp Stories was recorded in Tennessee, edited in Texas, and can be found wherever you listen to podcasts.

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