[House Hearing, 116 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
THE IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON VOTING RIGHTS AND ELECTION ADMINISTRATION:
ENSURING SAFE AND FAIR ELECTIONS
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HEARING
before the
SUBCOMMITTEE ON ELECTIONS
COMMITTEE ON HOUSE
ADMINISTRATION
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED SIXTEENTH CONGRESS
SECOND SESSION
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JUNE 11, 2020
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Printed for the use of the Committee on House Administration
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Available on the Internet:
http://www.govinfo.gov/committee/house-administration
__________
U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
41-480 WASHINGTON : 2020
COMMITTEE ON HOUSE ADMINISTRATION
ZOE LOFGREN, California, Chairperson
JAMIE RASKIN, Maryland RODNEY DAVIS, Illinois, Ranking
SUSAN A. DAVIS, California Member
G. K. BUTTERFIELD, North Carolina MARK WALKER, North Carolina
MARCIA L. FUDGE, Ohio BARRY LOUDERMILK, Georgia
PETE AGUILAR, California
C O N T E N T S
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JUNE 11, 2020
Page
The Impact of COVID-19 on Voting Rights and Election
Administration: Ensuring Safe and Fair Elections............... 1
OPENING STATEMENTS
Chairperson Marcia L. Fudge...................................... 1
Prepared statement of Chairperson Fudge...................... 4
Hon. Rodney Davis, Ranking Member................................ 8
Prepared statement of Ranking Member Davis................... 10
WITNESSES
Hon. Marcy Kaptur, Representative, Ninth District of Ohio........ 13
Prepared statement of Hon. Kaptur............................ 16
Hon. Gwen Moore, Representative, Fourth District of Wisconsin.... 18
Prepared statement of Hon. Moore............................. 20
Ms. Kristen Clarke, President & Executive Director, Lawyers'
Committee for Civil Rights Under Law........................... 24
Prepared statement of Ms. Clarke............................. 26
Ms. Sherrilyn Ifill, President and Director-Counsel, NAACP Legal
Defense & Educational Fund..................................... 47
Prepared statement of Ms. Ifill.............................. 49
Mr. Lawrence Norden, Director, Election Reform Program, Brennan
Center for Justice at NYU School of Law........................ 60
Prepared statement of Mr. Norden............................. 62
Mr. Mark Dimondstein, President, American Postal Workers Union... 160
Prepared statement of Mr. Dimondstein........................ 162
The Honorable R. Kyle Ardoin, Secretary of State, State of
Louisiana...................................................... 166
Prepared statement of Hon. Ardoin............................ 168
The Honorable John H. Merrill, Secretary of State, State of
Alabama........................................................ 171
Prepared statement of Hon. Merrill........................... 173
QUESTIONS FOR THE RECORD
Ms. Kristen Clarke, President & Executive Director, Lawyers'
Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, responses................ 199
Ms. Sherrilyn Ifill, President and Director-Counsel, NAACP Legal
Defense & Educational Fund, responses.......................... 216
Mr. Lawrence Norden, Director, Election Reform Program, Brennan
Center for Justice at NYU School of Law, responses............. 245
Mr. Mark Dimondstein, President, American Postal Workers Union,
responses...................................................... 258
The Honorable R. Kyle Ardoin, Secretary of State, State of
Louisiana, responses........................................... 261
The Honorable John H. Merrill, Secretary of State, State of
Alabama, responses............................................. 263
MATERIAL SUBMITTED FOR THE RECORD
Letter from 14 Secretaries of State regarding federal funding.... 267
Statement of the Niskanen Center................................. 270
Statement of the Honorable Barry Loudermilk, Representative,
Eleventh District of Georgia, and Member of the Committee...... 286
Statement, Marian K. Schneider, President, Verified Voting....... 287
Report, Preparing for Cyberattacks and Technical Problems During
the Pandemic: A Guide for Election Officials, Brennan Center
for Justice.................................................... 291
Report, Preparing for Cyberattacks and Technical Problems During
the Pandemic: A Checklist for election Officials, Brennan
Center for Justice............................................. 320
Report, Waiting to Vote: Racial Disparities in Election Day
Experiences, Brennan Center for Justice........................ 325
Letter, Matthew Weil, Director of the Elections Project,
Bipartisan Policy Center....................................... 360
Letter, R Street Institute....................................... 364
Letter, SPLC Action Fund......................................... 368
Statement, Matt Blaze, Professor and McDevitt Chair of Computer
Science and Law, Georgetown University, Rapidly Scaling Up
Absentee Voting in an Emergency................................ 374
THE IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON VOTING RIGHTS AND ELECTION ADMINISTRATION:
ENSURING SAFE AND FAIR ELECTIONS
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THURSDAY, JUNE 11, 2020
House of Representatives,
Subcommittee on Elections,
Committee on House Administration,
Washington, DC.
The Subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 1:04 p.m., via
Webex, Hon. Marcia L. Fudge [Chairperson of the Subcommittee]
presiding.
Present: Representatives Fudge, Raskin, Davis of
California, Butterfield, Aguilar, Davis of Illinois, and
Loudermilk.
Staff Present: Jamie Fleet, Staff Director; Dan Taylor,
General Counsel; Brandon Jacobs, Legislative Clerk; Stephen
Spaulding, Senior Elections Counsel; Sarah Nasta, Elections
Counsel; Peter Whippy, Communications Director; David Tucker,
Senior Counsel and Parliamentarian; Jen Daulby, Minority Staff
Director; Tim Monahan, Minority Deputy Staff Director; Cole
Felder, Minority General Counsel; and Veleter Mazyck, Chief of
Staff, Rep. Marcia Fudge.
Chairwoman Fudge. The Subcommittee on Elections of the
Committee on House Administration will come to order.
I welcome my fellow colleagues and Members of the Committee
and our witnesses, and thank you for joining us for the
Subcommittee's first official virtual hearing. I would like to
especially thank the Members of the Committee: Mr. Butterfield;
Mr. Davis, our Ranking Member; Mr. Aguilar; Mr. Loudermilk; and
Mrs. Davis. Thank you so much for being with us today.
We know that COVID-19 has altered the daily lives of all
Americans. It has impacted our health, how we work, how we
engage in our communities, and how we vote. It has also
impacted how we are holding today's hearing. People are putting
themselves at risk every day, from doctors and nurses to first
responders, postal workers, and many others, including poll
workers.
Congress, however, has an option many workers do not. We
can do our work remotely in a safe, secure, online format. The
highest levels of the Federal Government have all recognized
the unique circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic by holding
remote or virtual hearings. That includes the House and Senate,
which have held virtual hearings like this one. It includes the
Supreme Court, which has modified how it conducts its oral
arguments. And it includes the executive agencies which have
recognized the legitimacy of and the need for remote
proceedings by participating in those conducted by Congress and
the Supreme Court.
As we begin, I want to remind our members and participants
of a few things that will help us navigate this new platform.
We are holding this hearing in compliance with the regulations
for remote committee proceedings pursuant to House Resolution
965.
The fundamental nature of the hearing and our rules are
unchanged. Generally, the Committee will keep microphones muted
to limit background noise. Members will need to unmute
themselves when seeking recognition or when recognized for
their five minutes. Witnesses will need to unmute themselves
when recognized for their five minutes or when answering a
question, not unlike when we are in our Committee hearing room.
Members and witnesses, please keep your camera on at all
times. Even if you need to step away for a moment during the
proceeding, do not leave the meeting.
At this time, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have
5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and that
any written statements be made part of the record.
Hearing no objection, so ordered.
Now we turn to today's important topic. Today we will
examine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on election
administration and voters' ability to freely and safely access
the ballot. It has become clear that access to the ballot in
November is in jeopardy if we do not make substantial
investments in our election infrastructure and remove the
longstanding barriers that continue to keep far too many from
exercising their right to vote.
COVID-19 has tragically claimed the lives of nearly 113,000
Americans, and there are more than 2 million confirmed cases
nationwide. Our response must address the severity of this
emergency.
The general election is less than five months away, and
many public health experts warn we could see a resurgence of
the virus in the fall. In fact, the number of COVID cases is
still increasing in 19 States according to the latest
information.
In the interim, States continue to hold primary elections,
change election procedures to respond to the changing
landscape, and prepare for the prospect of conducting a
national election during a global pandemic.
A number of States postponed their primaries while, in
others, voters were forced to go to the polls risking their
health for their right to vote. Worse still, in several States,
including most recently Georgia, the number of polling places
has been slashed, subjecting voters to hours-long lines in the
midst of a pandemic.
The choices made by States have varied widely. For example,
California will send a mail-in ballot to every registered voter
for the November election, while the Ohio State House recently
advanced a bill that would make it harder for its citizens to
vote in November.
Twelve States and D.C. mailed, or will mail, absentee
ballot applications to voters for at least the primary
elections. At least six States expanded eligibility
requirements to qualify for an absentee ballot. Others have
fought expansion of absentee ballot access, exacerbating an
already unequal voting landscape.
Election officials are making decisions now that will
govern how millions of Americans ultimately cast their ballot.
During all of this confusion and uncertainty, the President is
waging an insidious campaign to sow distrust by spreading false
claims that vote-by-mail is ripe for fraud and threatening
States that are expanding access to safe voting options.
Voting by mail-in ballot is not new. The truth is, millions
of Americans, including the President and members of his
administration, cast a ballot by mail every election cycle with
exceedingly rare instances of fraud. Five States already
conduct vote-by-mail elections, according to the National Vote
at Home Count Coalition. Oregon has mailed out more than 100
million ballots since 2000 and had only about a dozen cases of
proven fraud.
States and localities undeniably have a significant role in
carrying out elections, but Congress must not abdicate its
responsibility. We must ensure every eligible American can
access the ballot box without endangering their health and with
the steadfast faith in our democratic process.
During the many hearings held by this Committee and
Subcommittee throughout the 116th Congress, we have explored
issues of election administration, election security, voting
rights and access, and protecting the integrity of our
democracy. They all take on new and complex dimensions as
Americans cast their ballot during a public health crisis.
These communities most vulnerable to voter suppression now
also disproportionately bear the impact of COVID-19. Today's
hearing will expand upon these issues. We will hear from
colleagues who represent districts in two States that have held
primaries during the pandemic, as well as experts in voting
rights, voter protection litigation, election reform, and from
secretaries of state charged with carrying out election.
America's postal workers are also represented at today's
hearing. As the use of mail-in ballots increases, postal
workers and the Postal Service have a vital role in ensuring
all voters receive their ballots and that ballots are securely
and timely returned.
In March, the CARES Act included a much-needed down payment
of $400 million to help States and local election officials
prepare for and respond to COVID-19. However, much more is
urgently needed.
The House-passed HEROES Act includes a comprehensive all-
of-the-above plan to improve access to the ballot and ensure no
voter is forced to choose between their health and voting: $3.6
billion in additional funding to implement mail-in options and
safe in-person voting for the November general election, no-
excuse absentee voting, expanded early voting, prepaid returned
postage, and self-sealing envelopes, mailing all voters a
ballot in a time of emergency, and more.
Voting should be safe and accessible whether you choose to
vote at home or in person. States need adequate resources and
planning to prepare for November. There is much work to be
done.
I now recognize the Ranking Member for any opening
statement he would wish to make.
[The statement of Chairwoman Fudge follows:]
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Mr. Davis of Illinois. Thank you, Madam Chair. It's been
great to work with you as the lone member of the minority party
on this Elections Subcommittee. I am really proud to be joined
by my colleague, Barry Loudermilk, too, who is also with me on
the House Administration Committee.
But thank you to all of our colleagues and to those
witnesses who are joining us today.
As a nation, we are facing a number of crises and not just
related to the coronavirus in elections. It is more critical
than ever that our electoral systems are efficient,
trustworthy, and secure.
As a Subcommittee, we have the opportunity today to do the
work that the American people demand of us. I am committed, as
I have always been, to ensuring that every eligible American is
able to freely vote.
But I cannot surrender or dilute the sanctity of a single
vote for changes in our laws that risk undermining the
integrity of our elections. Unfortunately, I believe many of
the changes proposed by the majority during this Congress would
do just that.
Today, as we explore how the coronavirus has and will
continue to impact election administration, we must note that
many of the changes proposed by the majority were proposed
prior to the coronavirus. H.R. 1, for instance, included same-
day registration, required early voting, vote-by-mail
expansion, and required the counting of provisional ballots,
all items that Speaker Pelosi has once again put forward.
Some of the proposals recently put forth have nothing to do
with limiting the spread of the virus. For example, allowing
unlimited ballot harvesting would likely have the opposite
effect by placing ballot brokers in the living rooms of voters.
Other ideas may have merit, and I welcome the opportunity to
explore them at this hearing.
When it comes to issues of election administration, I
believe I have proven to be pragmatic and willing to listen to
reason. For instance, when the National Association of
Secretaries of State raised concerns over federally
appropriated funds in the CARES Act, I sent a letter to
Chairperson Lofgren expressing my willingness to explore their
concerns.
I have also put forward my own ideas about how to reform
the elections process. I have introduced four separate pieces
of legislation, along with my colleague on this call, Mr.
Loudermilk, and the other colleague on House Administration,
Mr. Walker, and others. I have introduced with them legislation
that is meant to strengthen not only our elections but also the
American's public faith in them.
If there is a way to strengthen our democracy at the
Federal level without trampling on the rights of our States, we
are all for it. However, I want to be very clear about our
policy priorities, which are informed by the work of this
Committee over the last 18 months.
First, live ballots should not be mailed to those who
didn't request one. This is especially true in States like
California where voter registration lists have not been
maintained, leading to situations like in Los Angeles County
where potentially 1.5 million ineligible voters sit on the
rolls.
Second, we must not allow nationwide unlimited ballot
harvesting. And, finally, we must not allow ballots returned or
postmarked after election day to be counted, nor must we allow
ballots returned before election day to be counted early. These
proposals risk the integrity of our elections process and are,
frankly, irresponsible. If we can move past these items then,
Madam Chair, you will find a willing partner in me.
The question then is, where do we begin? Heading into the
2020 general election, we have three priorities: One, all
voters who choose to vote in person must be able to do so
safely. I believe the funds included in the CARES Act have and
will go a long way in this effort.
Two, States that wish to expand their vote-by-mail and
absentee operations must do so without sacrificing the security
of the vote. This must include voter list maintenance. This one
requirement, if enforced, could dramatically reduce the time
many voters have to spend in line and significantly reduce the
number of personnel needed to administer an election.
And, three, States and the Federal Government must work
together to ensure the American public view the 2020 election
with legitimacy.
Critical to all three of these priorities is vote by mail.
I support States that are taking steps to increase their
capacity for mail-in voting, but to presume that every State
should or even can dramatically increase its capacity is
ridiculous.
Many States, including two represented today, had less than
4 percent of voters participate in the last election through
casting an absentee ballot. To ask that they move to primarily
a vote-by-mail system prior to November would be to ignore the
realities of election administration and the very real lack of
equipment to make such a transition, some of which takes months
to manufacture and deliver.
Additionally, the Department of Homeland Security has
warned States against reducing in-person voting locations in
favor of vote-by-mail as it could have a dramatic effect on
voter access, lines, and congestion. This is exactly what
happened in Milwaukee where in-person voting locations were
reduced from over 100 to just 5.
Further, to ask State populations who have never voted by
mail before to suddenly do so with little to no public
education would disenfranchise these voters. Election officials
reject almost 2 percent of ballots cast by mail for a variety
of reasons. This is double the rate of in-person voting. If we
want to talk voting rights, that is also a voting rights issue.
While I do not have the time to discuss every policy
proposal, I want to reiterate that our effort cannot and will
not end here today. I look forward to hearing from our
witnesses, and I yield back.
[The statement of Ranking Member Davis follows:]
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Chairwoman Fudge. Thank you, Mr. Davis.
Now we will begin our testimony. I want to just make sure
that the panel understands that they will be recognized for
five minutes. I will remind every witness that their entire
written statements will be made part of the record and that the
record will remain open for at least five days for additional
materials to be submitted.
A reminder to all of our witnesses, there is a timer on the
screen. Please be sure you can see the timer and are mindful of
the five-minute time limit.
Our first panel we will hear from two of our colleagues who
represent districts in States that have held primaries since
the pandemic began. As is our custom, we will not ask our
colleagues any questions.
First, Representative Marcy Kaptur from the Ninth
Congressional District of Ohio, which stretches 141 miles along
Lake Erie's coastline from Toledo to the west side of
Cleveland. Congresswoman Kaptur is currently the longest
serving woman in the history of the U.S. House of
Representatives. She currently serves as a senior member of the
House Appropriations Committee where she chairs the
Subcommittee on Energy and Water.
Further, we will have Congresswoman Gwen Moore, who was
elected to represent the Fourth Congressional District of
Wisconsin in 2004, making her the first African American
elected to Congress from the State of Wisconsin. Prior to
becoming a Member of Congress, Congresswoman Moore represented
the people of Wisconsin in the State House of Representatives
from 1989 to 1992 and in the State Senate from 1993 to 2004.
She is currently a Member of the House Ways and Means
Committee.
Ms. Kaptur, please proceed.
STATEMENT OF THE HON. MARCY KAPTUR, A REPRESENTATIVE IN
CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF OHIO
Ms. Kaptur. Thank you very much, Chairwoman Fudge and
Ranking Member Davis, for the opportunity to address your
important Subcommittee. You have taken a leadership role amid
the COVID-19 epidemic, including your efforts to author in the
HEROES Act key provisions to streamline election
administration.
Your Subcommittee also conducted a dynamic and thought-
provoking oversight hearing in Cleveland last year, in which I
had the pleasure of participating. Thank you for your strong,
continuing leadership.
Chairwoman Fudge. Thank you.
Ms. Kaptur. Our vote is our voice in our republic. Voting
is a right, not a privilege. The women's suffrage, civil
rights, and LGBTQ movements have made our democratic republic
advance closer to our Constitution's aspirations.
Unfortunately, at this time of economic and social
reckoning and much uncertainty, our franchise is in danger.
President Trump and his allies are trying to undermine
confidence in absentee voting and, by association, our
electoral system.
Now, let me be clear, theirs is a transparent attempt to
use every conceivable ploy to delegitimize elections and
distort the result. We must rise above their partisan antics to
ensure every American has equal access to the ballot and that
those ballots are able to be filed and counted with high
precision.
The timing of Ohio's 2020 primary election placed Ohio's
election in suspended animation. Our March 17 primary election
was just days after the President declared a national emergency
on March 13, 2020.
As the scale of the epidemic became apparent, Ohio Governor
Mike DeWine acted to postpone in-person voting. Unfortunately,
this set off a chaotic series of events jeopardizing our
fundamental right to the franchise. Voter turnout plummeted.
Absentee ballots and early voting results were held in
abeyance.
The legal process to change and ultimately cancel in-person
voting was rife with disorder. Chaos ensued as litigation
stretched into the night. Voters and poll workers did not know
whether the polls would be open or closed when they vote on
primary election day.
Eventually, the primary was rescheduled to April 28, 2020,
with nearly 2 million voters requesting absentee ballots in a
very confusing, mail-in, mail-back process. Unfortunately,
despite an unprecedented surge in the number of requests, data
compiled by FiveThirtyEight indicates voter turnout for the
April 28, 2020, primary reached just over 20 percent, well
below the historic average for a Presidential year. For
example, in 2016, the primary turnout of voters was 43.66
percent.
This was likely due to the additional steps required to
request a ballot, ballots arriving too late, delays in Postal
Service processing that prevented timely delivery of ballots,
and vast numbers of in-person provisional ballots being
rejected out of hand.
The cumbersome absentee ballot request process and the
failure to automatically send ballots to people with prepaid
return postage meant fewer voters and less participation. This
is disenfranchisement, plain and simple.
In addition to this flood of logistical challenges, Ohio is
under water as a result of the increased costs. With
unnecessarily restrictive voting laws and Republican one-party
rule and a resistant legislature, Ohio is ensnared in the fight
of laws purposefully designed to make voting more restrictive.
For example, the Ohio legislature is debating H.B. 680,
which would roll back in-person early voting and end statewide
mailing of ballot applications for November's election. This
will suppress the vote, and that is its intent.
A recent study by the Brennan Center, who you will hear
from in the next panel, estimates Ohio and its localities would
now bear as much as $82 million in unplanned election costs
before November.
The CARES Act, as you mentioned, allocated $400 million for
election grants to the States; $12.8 million was dispersed to
Ohio. Unfortunately, these funds are inadequate for what is
required as State and local budgets brace for major budget
cuts.
Mitch McConnell's Senate majority must get the HEROES Act
over the legislative finish line with its $3.6 billion for
State and local governments so we can't have any cutting of
corners that will place the franchise at even greater risk.
I applaud the United States Commission on Civil Rights, the
bipartisan and congressionally chartered organization, for
initiating a fact-finding mission to ensure the fall election
is conducted with vigor. The challenge is great, but Congress
has the tools to prevent a repeat of Ohio's primary election
chaos and disastrous turnout.
We must meet this real challenge to our democracy. The
question is, do those in charge have the will? I know you do,
Madam Chair. I hope that your Ranking Member does. So with tens
of millions of newly unemployed and with more people taking to
the streets, too many Americans believe their voice is
suppressed in this one-party-rule State. We therefore have an
even greater obligation to use every tool in our arsenal to
administer a universal, accessible, free, safe, and fair fall
election.
Thank you very much, Chairwoman Fudge and Ranking Member
Davis, for holding this critical hearing. All we ask for here
in Ohio is a fair fight, but not one that is jury-rigged by
one-party rule in Ohio. Thank you.
[The statement of Ms. Kaptur follows:]
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Chairwoman Fudge. Thank you so much.
Ms. Moore, you are recognized for 5 minutes.
STATEMENT OF THE HON. GWEN MOORE, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS
FROM THE STATE OF WISCONSIN
Ms. Moore. Thank you so much. I want to thank you, Madam
Chair and the members of the Subcommittee on Elections. As you
know, Madam Chair, you are one of the first people that I
reached out to after the catastrophic election in Wisconsin,
and I want to thank you and the Ranking Member and Members for
convening to have this important hearing on concerns raised
during the Wisconsin primary election.
I did hear the opening statement by you and the Ranking
Member. So I just wanted to say at the outset that I don't
think it is an either/or situation whether or not we have in-
person voting or whether we have voting with no excuse absentee
ballot--in the case of--by mail.
In the case of the Wisconsin election, we sought to expand
voting by mail because we--as you have heard from
Representative Marcy Kaptur, by April 7, we all knew that the
pandemic was upon us, and our Governor was frantically trying
to reschedule the election, but was foiled from doing that by
various Supreme Court decisions.
COVID-19 was right at its surge right around April 7.
Dangerous conditions were predicted, and too many voters had to
make really a serious choice between exercising their franchise
and risking their vote. I would say, Madam Chair, that that is
the ultimate polling test, which started out the day before our
primary election. The Supreme Court of Wisconsin joined the
Democratic Governor with the executive order to reschedule the
election and ordered in-person voting to proceed despite the
risks posed to voters and poll workers amidst the epic
epicenter of the COVID-19 surge.
Wisconsin was the only State to carry out its scheduled
election during a time when all other States opted to postpone
or to shift to all-mail balloting. Just hours before election
day, the United States Supreme Court blocked a district court
order extending the deadline to return absentee ballots. Both
decisions denied State and local leaders enough time to
implement necessary measures for conducting the election safely
amidst the public health emergency and created mass confusion
for voters.
It all resulted in what Wisconsin's largest newspaper
called ``the most undemocratic election in our State's
history.'' In my district, which includes the State's largest
city and where a majority of Black and Brown Wisconsinites
live, we were already massively hit by the disproportionate
death toll of COVID-19.
Milwaukee's usual 180 polling places were reduced to a mere
five sites due to an abrupt and severe shortage of poll workers
who rightly feared for their lives and well-being and could not
risk the danger of exposure.
Lines stretched several blocks with voters waiting hours in
the rain to exercise their constitutional right to vote.
Footage was broadcast of the Wisconsin Assembly Speaker's visit
to a rural polling site dressed from head to toe in a hospital
gown, surgical mask, gloves, layered in PPE enviable by most of
our healthcare workers, and giving people unfounded
reassurances that everyone was safe.
I too, Madam Chair, fear that my vote may not have been
counted since I am extremely fond of in-person voting but
decided at the very last minute to cast an absentee vote when I
heard reports of the pandemic. And I frantically gave my ballot
to a person at the Post Office, and I later heard that folks
that didn't have the appropriate postmark and stamps weren't
counted.
My time is limited. So I just want to close by saying to
you that Wisconsin's primary election is a chief tenet of true
democracy, and maximizing participation without discrimination
is important to us. We need in-person voting. We need
opportunities to vote by mail.
And it does require resources. It is not enough to just say
that States and local governments need to do this, Madam Chair.
We need resources so that we can keep polls open, give people
same-day voting options, as well as to equip our local county
boards with the opportunities to provide ballotmail-in ballots.
Thank you.
[The statement of Ms. Moore follows:]
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Chairwoman Fudge. Thank you, both.
And, Members, if you need to leave, we understand, but
thank you so much. We appreciate your testimony today. We know
that we have some work to do clearly, and we are happy that you
could join us today. Thank you again.
Ms. Moore. Thank you.
Chairwoman Fudge. I would now move to introduce the second
panel. We will begin with Kristen Clarke, who is the president
and the executive director of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil
Rights Under Law. The Lawyers' Committee seeks to ensure equal
justice for all through the rule of law, targeting, in
particular, the inequities confronting African Americans and
other racial and ethnic minorities.
Ms. Clarke previously served as the head of the Civil
Rights Bureau for the New York State Attorney General's Office.
She spent several years at the NAACP Legal Defense and
Educational Fund where she helped lead the organization's work
in the areas of voting rights and election law and worked at
the U.S. Department of Justice in the Civil Rights Division.
Next, we have Ms. Sherrilyn Ifill, who is the president and
director-counsel of NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund.
LDF seeks structural changes to expand democracy, eliminate
disparities, and achieve racial justice. Ms. Ifill is the
second woman to lead the organization.
She began her career as a fellow at the American Civil
Liberties Union before joining the staff of LDF. In 1993, Ms.
Ifill left LDF to join the faculty at the University of
Maryland School of Law in Baltimore, where she spent more than
20 years. In 2013, Ms. Ifill was invited back to the LDF, this
time to lead the organization as its director-counsel.
Lawrence Norden is the director of the Election Reform
Program at the Brennan Center for Justice. He is there to
ensure that U.S. election infrastructure is secure and
accessible to every voter and to protect elections from foreign
interference. Mr. Norden is also a member of the Election
Assistance Commission Board of Advisors where he currently
serves as the vice chair of the Election Security Committee.
Mark Dimondstein is president of the American Postal
Workers Union, which represents more than 200,000 employees of
the U.S. Postal Service and approximately 1,500 employees in
the private sector mailing industry. He began his first 3-year
term in November of 2013. Mr. Dimondstein began his postal
career in 1983.
Kyle Ardoin serves as the 44th Secretary of State for the
State of Louisiana. He was elected Secretary of State on
December of 2018. He brings to the office more than 30 years of
experience working in both the private and public sector.
Mr. John Merrill serves as the 53rd Secretary of State for
the State of Alabama. He was elected in 2014 and was reelected
in 2018. He is also a member of the United States Election
Assistance Commission Standards Board and currently serves as
the chair of the Republican Association of Secretaries of
State.
Again, you will all be given 5 minutes for your testimony,
and we will then follow with questions.
Ms. Clarke, you are recognized for 5 minutes.
STATEMENTS OF KRISTEN CLARKE, PRESIDENT & EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR,
LAWYERS' COMMITTEE FOR CIVIL RIGHTS UNDER LAW; SHERRILYN IFILL,
PRESIDENT & DIRECTOR-COUNSEL, NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE & EDUCATIONAL
FUND., INC.; LAWRENCE NORDEN, DIRECTOR, ELECTION REFORM,
DEMOCRACY, BRENNAN CENTER FOR JUSTICE; MARK DIMONDSTEIN,
PRESIDENT, AMERICAN POSTAL WORKERS UNION; THE HONORABLE R. KYLE
ARDOIN, SECRETARY OF STATE, STATE OF LOUISIANA; AND THE
HONORABLE JOHN H. MERRILL, SECRETARY OF STATE, STATE OF ALABAMA
STATEMENT OF KRISTEN CLARKE
Ms. Clarke. Chairwoman Fudge, Ranking Member Davis, and
members of the Subcommittee on Elections of the U.S. House of
Representatives Committee on House Administration, my name is
Kristen Clarke, and I serve as the president and executive
director of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.
Thank you for the opportunity to testify today on how we can
ensure that States hold safe and fair elections during the
COVID-19 pandemic.
The Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, the
organization that I lead, has been at the forefront of the
battle for equal rights since it was created in 1963 at the
request of President Kennedy to enlist the private bar's
leadership and resources in combating racial discrimination.
Simply put, our mission is to secure equal justice under
law. We have been a leader in many of the most important voting
rights cases in our Nation, and we also lead Election
Protection, which is the largest and longest running
nonpartisan voter protection program in the country.
I am here today to sound the alarm on what we have seen in
recent primaries, including from just two days ago when voters
went to the polls in Georgia, South Carolina, Nevada, North
Dakota, and West Virginia. Many States and local counties are
simply unprepared to safely handle people voting in person, and
several States have failed to provide requested mail-in ballots
to voters in time for them to be cast.
Georgia is the poster child for this dysfunction and
disenfranchisement of African American voters, as it has been
repeatedly. We were flooded with thousands of calls by way of
our 866-OUR-VOTE hotline, particularly from Black voters in
Georgia. Those complaints raised concerns about long lines,
some that went beyond midnight, sites that opened late, last-
minute polling place changes, malfunctioning equipment, backup
paper ballot shortages, and more.
We also heard from voters who never received their absentee
ballot despite the election being delayed twice. We sued to
ensure that polling place hours were extended in Gwinnett
County so that no eligible voter would be denied their
fundamental right, and with partners we advocated for poll hour
extensions in several counties.
To put it bluntly, this was one of the most chaotic
elections that we have seen this season. As a nation, we are
facing one of the greatest challenges to our democracy in the
midst of a pandemic and a recession that is disproportionately
impacting African Americans and people of color.
As people have taken to the street to protest the killing
of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery, the most
recent victims of racially violent police brutality and white
supremacy, the President sadly has repeatedly attempted to send
the military into communities over the wishes of State
Governors and local mayors.
It is critical for Congress to step in to ensure that
neither Federal action nor veiled threats interfere with our
most fundamental right, the right to vote. Protecting the right
to vote is vital to our democracy because it is the right
preservative of all rights. It empowers people to elect
candidates of their choice who will govern and legislate to
advance other fundamental rights.
However, that right was threatened long before the
pandemic. In the words of Congressman John Lewis, the Supreme
Court stuck a dagger into the heart of the Voting Rights Act
when it issued a 5-4 decision in Shelby County v. Holder. If we
had section 5 in place now, it would act as a check on some of
the eleventh-hour discriminatory voting changes that we have
seen this season.
Without section 5 and in the absence of any meaningful
enforcement from the Justice Department, voters across the
country, especially African Americans and other people of
color, are vulnerable to being disenfranchised during the
pandemic. Quite simply, no one should ever have to choose
between risking their health and life and voting.
As I explain in greater detail in my written testimony, it
is critical for Congress to both expand options for in-person
voting and vote by mail. Preserving our democracy hinges on
providing sufficient funding to States for the safe and fair
administration of elections, which requires an appropriation of
an additional $3.6 billion on top of the $400 million allocated
in the CARES Act.
We strongly recommend that Congress mandate no-excuse
absentee balloting for Federal elections this year so that any
voter with pre-existing conditions or concerns about COVID-19
exposure can choose to vote-by-mail. Expanded access to vote-
by-mail depends on the U.S. Postal Service being up and
running. So it is critical that Congress provide the full $89
billion in support requested by Postal Service leadership.
But vote-by-mail is not an option for every voter. We know
that there are Native American voters, for example, that live
in remote areas or on reservations that do not receive regular
Postal Service. For voters who must or prefer to vote in
person, Congress should mandate that States provide at least 2
weeks of early voting. This will provide people with
opportunities----
Chairwoman Fudge. Ms. Clarke, I need you to wrap up if you
would, please.
Ms. Clarke. Indeed. Opportunities to participate and reduce
the risk of crowding at polling places and enable poll workers
to have more time to sanitize equipment. I thank you for the
opportunity to testify today.
[The statement of Ms. Clarke follows:]
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Chairwoman Fudge. Thank you so very much.
Ms. Ifill, you are recognized for five minutes.
STATEMENT OF SHERRILYN IFILL
Ms. Ifill. Can you hear me now?
Chairwoman Fudge. Yes, we can.
Ms. Ifill. Fantastic. Good morning, Chairwoman Fudge,
Ranking Member Davis, and members of the Subcommittee. My name
is Sherrilyn Ifill, and I am the president and director-counsel
of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, or LDF. Thank you for the
opportunity to testify this afternoon regarding COVID-19's
impact on voting rights and election administration. LDF was
founded in 1940 by Thurgood Marshall. It has been an entirely
separate organization from the NAACP since 1957.
Beginning with Smith v. Allwright, our successful Supreme
Court case challenging the use of Whites-only primary elections
in 1944, LDF has been fighting to overcome the obstacles to
ensure the full, equal, and active participation of Black
voters in the political process.
Recent reports indicate that there have been over almost 2
million confirmed cases of COVID-19 infection in the United
States and more than 112,000 deaths. The country faces not only
a public health crisis but also an economic crisis comparable
to the Great Depression in severity.
More than 40 million people have filed for unemployment
since the start of the pandemic. The pandemic is
disproportionately impacting Black people. The Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention reports that while Black people
are only 13 percent of the U.S. population, we constitute
nearly 30 percent of all U.S. coronavirus deaths.
Unfortunately, this pandemic is not only a public health
emergency, and an economic crisis, it is also a threat to the
very foundation of our democracy and its most important form of
expression: free and fair elections.
I will never--and we must never--forget the images that we
saw in Wisconsin in April and yesterday in Georgia: thousands
of mask-wearing Americans standing in staggered lines extended
over city blocks as they waited to vote amid the most dangerous
pandemic this country has faced in a century.
None of them could be certain they would avoid contracting
the deadly coronavirus and carrying it home to their loved one,
yet they stood in line, some for hours, to exercise the
fundamental right that the Supreme Court described 134 years
ago as preservative of all rights.
It has been reported that at least 71 people contracted
COVID-19 after voting in person or working at the polls during
the Wisconsin election, and at least one study concluded that
those counties with more in-person voters per voting location
had significantly higher rates of COVID-19 transmission after
the election than counties with lower voter density.
It was a shameful, disgraceful sight that we confined
people to have to choose between their health and their right
as citizens to participate and vote. But I am also compelled to
see the powerful nobility of those people standing, separated
from each other as best they could in Wisconsin and yesterday
in Georgia for hours on end determined to participate in the
political process.
The choice facing Black voters was especially agonizing.
Death has far too often been the consequence for Black
Americans who insisted on exercising their full rights as
American citizens by voting.
LDF has in the past two months filed four cases seeking to
remove onerous absentee voting requirements in Southern States.
These include requirements such as those in Alabama where
voters voting absentee must secure the signature of two third-
party witnesses or have the ballot notarized and include a copy
of their government-issued photo ID when they mail in their
ballot.
We are currently still in litigation in Alabama and in
Louisiana, where although Blacks constitute 28 percent of the
population they have constituted 70 percent of the COVID-
related deaths.
And we scored an important victory two weeks ago when a
Federal District Court found that the requirement in South
Carolina that absentee voters have a third-party witness sign
the ballot is an unconstitutional burden given the threat of
the COVID-19 pandemic. And our claim was specifically focused
on the burden experienced by Black voters.
But while we litigate cases seeking to remove absentee
voter burdens, we also stress the importance of protecting
those who choose to vote in person. Absentee voting cannot
fully replace, as we saw yesterday, or come--day before
yesterday, or come at the expense of States' accessible and
secure in-person voting. Congress must ensure a both/and
strategy for voting in this pandemic. It must guarantee that
voters have the option of voting-by-mail and safe in-person
voting.
Congress must approach this with a thorough, urgent, and
unrelenting determination to protect the right to vote. And we
should remember that there is a critical need for robust
community education to ensure that people are fully informed
about the variety of voting options as well as the details of
how each option works.
These necessary changes and modifications to voting
practices and election administration, coupled with the fear
and confusion surrounding the COVID pandemic, creates
circumstances that are ripe for disinformation and
manipulation, and we have already seen our President contribute
to that confusion with some of his tweets.
So public education campaigns must also plan to combat
disinformation. That is why we are gratified that the HEROES
Act includes an additional $3.6 billion needed for States and
local jurisdictions to implement measures that will facilitate
accessible absentee voting and safe in-person voting. The Act
also calls for the extension of early in-person voting,
expanded online registration, and requires the removal of
onerous conditions for absentee voting.
This election is a test for our democracy, one we cannot
fail, one we know that we cannot leave to local county
officials. We need Congress to demonstrate leadership by
providing the resources and direction included in the HEROES
Act as soon as possible to ensure access to the ballot for
every eligible voter in November.
Thank you.
[The statement of Ms. Ifill follows:]
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Chairwoman Fudge. Thank you.
Mr. Norden, you are recognized for five minutes.
STATEMENT OF LAWRENCE NORDEN
Mr. Norden. Thank you, Chairwoman Fudge, Ranking Member
Davis, Members of the Committee and Subcommittee for this
opportunity to testify today.
It is now two days since the funeral of George Floyd, and
millions of Americans are asking when their voices will be
heard. Let's not fail these Americans when they come out to
vote this fall.
Obviously, COVID-19 presents a real challenge to free and
fair elections this year. As Kristen Clarke and Sherrilyn Ifill
have noted, in primaries from Wisconsin to Georgia just two
days ago, we have seen closed polling places, sick poll
workers, mail ballots never delivered, and long lines lasting
6, 7, 8 hours. These are unacceptable and serious barriers to
the franchise, and there is no question that they have been
made worse by COVID this year.
The sole bit of good news that I have to share is that
since the outbreak in the United States, the Brennan Center has
spoken to many dozens of election officials of both parties
around the country, and the vast majority are working to take
steps to ensure that we can have free, fair, and safe elections
this fall. But the overwhelming consensus from those elections
that we have spoken to is that they need more resources.
The Brennan Center, based on work with those election
officials and R Street Institute, the Alliance for Securing
Democracy, Pitt Cyber, and election vendors has estimated that
the additional cost to running free and fair and safe elections
this year to be around $4 billion.
Why is this money needed? First, to address voter
registration. There has been a severe disruption to voter
registration in the United States in 2020 because of COVID. In
fact, the Center for Election Innovation and Research just had
a report out today showing how much registration activity has
plummeted this year.
Government offices are closed. Registration drives aren't
happening. Certainly, one result of this is going to be that we
are going to see a huge move in the coming months to voters
moving online for registration.
Many systems around the country were not built for such
high use of registration activity. Some States, like
Pennsylvania, are currently building more capacity, but many
others are going to require more resources to be able to do
that, and they are all going to have to work to make those
systems more secure.
I note that already this year we have seen online systems
overwhelmed in Georgia, Florida, and Wisconsin too often
leading into failure of those systems. And this problem is only
going to get worse as we approach registration deadlines around
the country. We need to adjust for that now.
Second, there will be an increase, of course, in mail
voting. The arguments in D.C. about whether or not we should be
expanding mail-in voting are detached from reality. I agree
with Ranking Member Davis that there are many challenges to
this increase, but it is happening. It is expanded.
Before COVID-19, 34 States allowed for no-excuse absentee
voting in this country. This year, 12 more have relaxed their
requirements to allow voting [inaudible] use and during
elections. And in the midst of the pandemic, millions of
Americans, many, many millions are choosing this option.
Most recently in Pennsylvania, we saw a 16 times increase
in the number of people asking for mail ballots. In Georgia, in
the election that just was completed on Tuesday, more than 25
time increase in-mail voting. We are seeing these kinds of
increases everywhere.
The biggest question is not whether it is going to happen.
The biggest question is, will we provide the support that
jurisdictions need to make sure that they can handle this? If
not, what we are going to see is a repeat of what we just saw
in Georgia yesterday with overwhelmed offices, tens of
thousands of voters not receiving their ballots. We cannot
allow this to happen this fall.
Third, of course, we must provide safe, in-person voting as
many have mentioned. Georgia has demonstrated that we need in-
person voting as a failsafe. And, of course, there are people
who are going to want to vote by mail. That is going to be
their choice. And then there are others who will have no choice
out of necessity because they need assistance. They need to be
in the polling places.
We need to take steps to ensure there is sufficient early
voting to reduce crowding. We need to make sure that poll
workers and voters alike are safe, that poll workers have
protective equipment, that we have more of them, and that we
have things that disposable pens when it comes to polling
places to mark their ballots.
Finally, we must make sure that our infrastructure is kept
secure. All of the changes that we have talked about today, we
need more investment to make sure that we are keeping systems
secure. Russia, other hostile nation-states are not going to
stop attacking our elections merely because we have a pandemic
in this country.
So, in conclusion, what I want to say is, yes, these are
serious challenges that we are facing, but they are not
insurmountable. Election officials know what they need to do,
and Congress needs to make sure that it provides the resources,
and it needs to do so as soon as possible.
Thank you.
[The statement of Mr. Norden follows:]
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Chairwoman Fudge. Thank you.
Mr. Dimondstein, you are recognized for five minutes.
STATEMENT OF MARK DIMONDSTEIN
Mr. Dimondstein. Well, good afternoon, Chairwoman Fudge,
Ranking Member Davis, Members of the Committee. My name is Mark
Dimondstein. I am president of the American Postal Workers
Union, AFL-CIO.
600,000 postal workers daily serve every community in the
country, including as frontline workers during these dangerous
times of the pandemic. Postal workers are extremely dedicated
and proud public servants. We are serious about our oath to
protect the privacy and sanctity of the mail. We treat your
mail as if it was our own.
We are trusted by the public with a 91 percent favorability
rating, equal among Democrats, Republicans, and independents.
We carry out the mission to ``bind the Nation together,''
collecting, sorting, and delivering medicine, health
information, financial and legal transactions, census forms,
greeting cards, letters, periodicals, pension and stimulus
checks, e-commerce packages, and, yes, tens of millions of mail
ballots.
Vote-by-mail is nothing new for us. We have been handling
the task well for generations, serving overseas military
personnel, those on travel, and States that mandate vote-by-
mail for the tens of millions who choose to do it, from the
current President of the United States to my mother, who voted
her very last time by absentee ballot from a hospital bed. No
doubt the President's ballot and my mother's vote were safely
and timely delivered and counted.
As vote-by-mail has been thrust into the forefront of this
ongoing pandemic, I urge you to take into account the proven
experience. Voting by mail works, increases voter
participation, helps counter voter suppression, creates a paper
trail, cannot be hacked, saves money, is private and secure,
and is absent of any increased voter fraud.
During this election, many will continue to be sheltered in
place or quarantined. Seniors and those with health conditions,
and most people, are less likely to gather in public settings.
Poll workers are often unavailable. The threat of the further
spread of this deadly disease is still ever present. Robust
plans for vote-by-mail will literally make the difference on
whether tens of millions of people will have access to the
ballot.
In the last several primary States, we see the difference
vote-by-mail can make in ensuring safe, timely, and universal
access for our most sacred, democratic right, the right to
vote. These facts underscore that we must ensure that our
national treasure, the public Postal Service, is on solid
footing. The COVID-related economic crisis has deeply affected
the Postal Service. Mail volume is severely reduced. And while
packages have temporarily increased, this spike will not
continue.
As an institution that traditionally receives no tax
dollars, a deep fall in projected revenue means that the Postal
Service may soon be unable to carry out its mandate of
universal service to all 160 million addresses, including when
it comes to ballots.
The Postal Service testified to the House Oversight
Committee that the United States Postal Service is anticipating
a $13 billion revenue loss directly related to COVID-19 this
fiscal year and $54 billion in additional losses over 10 years,
and raises the Postal Service will, quote, run out of task this
fiscal year, end of quote, without appropriate relief from
Congress and the administration.
So the first condition of successful expansion of vote-by-
mail to protect our voting rights during the pandemic is to
make sure that we stabilize the finances of the Postal Service
in an emergency appropriation of at least $25 billion proposed
in the HEROES Act. And that represents only part of the
proposal from the bipartisan and Republican majority Postal
Board of Governors.
Our country's Founders recognize the importance of the
Postal Service by enshrining it in the U.S. Constitution
itself. There is no better contribution to civic life than to
maintain and enhance our access to our hard-fought, with blood,
sweat, and tears, our hard-fought and cherished right to vote.
I thank the committee for allowing me to testify at this
important hearing and, when the time is right, would welcome
any questions. Thank you, Chairwoman.
[The statement of Mr. Dimondstein follows:]
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Chairwoman Fudge. Thank you. Thank you so much.
Mr. Ardoin, you are recognized for five minutes.
STATEMENT OF THE HONORABLE R. KYLE ARDOIN
Mr. Ardoin. Thank you, Madam Chairwoman, Ranking Member
Davis, and Members. We appreciate this opportunity to testify
to you. I am Kyle Ardoin. I am Louisiana Secretary of State.
This is our opportunity to discuss the important work we are
doing in Louisiana in these unprecedented times to ensure all
voters have the opportunity to vote safely in a fair and honest
election.
Unfortunately, Louisiana is no stranger to natural
disaster, and we have faced crises around election time before,
such as in 2005 when Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans
and the surrounding area, or when Hurricane Gustav hit
southeast Louisiana followed by Hurricane Ike in the Southwest
in 2008.
However, never before have we had to deal with the perfect
storm of election issues with cyber threats, election meddling
attempts from foreign adversaries, and now COVID-19. Our
previous experience with natural disaster has better prepared
Louisiana to adjust election processes and procedures in ways
other States may not be able to.
Louisiana law allows for me, as Secretary of State, to
certify that an emergency exists and request to the Governor
that our elections be postponed. In March, we became the first
State to change our election dates from April and May to June
and July and later postponed further to July and August.
Louisiana law further allows the secretary of state to
submit an emergency election plan to the legislature where it
must be approved by both House and Senate oversight committees,
the full legislature, and agreed to by the Governor.
Immediately following our decision to delay our spring
elections, my staff began working on an emergency plan that
would provide for safe elections in the midst of a global
pandemic.
The emergency election plan agreed to by our Democratic
Governor and approved by a majority Republican legislature with
bipartisan support establishes the following: First, an
additional 6 days of in-person early voting. While in-person
early voting normally takes place over a seven-day period, we
added an additional six days to provide for the necessary
social distancing measures.
Second, we created an emergency COVID-19 absentee ballot
application. Currently, Louisiana allows 11 different ways to
request an absentee ballot. This emergency application covers
those at higher risk for COVID-19, those subject to quarantine,
those experiencing symptoms of COVID-19, or those caring for an
individual that is subject to quarantine.
And, third, personal protective equipment at every polling
site will be available. Hand sanitizer will be provided to
voters. Voting machines and other equipment will be regularly
sanitized, and poll workers will be given masks and gloves.
Our emergency election plan is a temporary response to a
global pandemic. This plan would be applicable only for the
July and August elections. Any changes to the processes for the
following election would require the same process of submitting
an emergency election plan with legislative and gubernatorial
approval.
Our State has benefited greatly from flexibility. Having
the ability to adapt to whatever crisis our State faces has
allowed us to tailor our response to the situation at hand. In
our State's legislative session, we recently killed legislation
that would hamper our ability to respond to crises. In a
similar way, we as States must fight against Federal attempts
to mandate how we run our elections under the guise of
charitable appropriations.
Receiving one-time funds to run elections during an
unprecedented crisis at the expense of radically changing our
election system is a tradeoff we are not willing to make. We
will gladly accept Federal dollars with no strings or political
motivations attached, and we would prefer not to have to come
up with State matching dollars in a time of such economic
turmoil.
As the chief election officer for the State of Louisiana, I
am tasked with overseeing elections, and I cannot cede control
of our elections to politicians thousands of miles away. I am
accountable to Louisianans, and they expect me to run elections
in a safe, fair, honest manner, that works best for all in our
State.
Thank you, Madam Chairwoman, for this opportunity.
[The statement of Mr. Ardoin follows:]
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Chairwoman Fudge. Thank you.
And last but not at least, Mr. Merrill, you are now
recognized for 5 minutes.
STATEMENT OF THE HONORABLE JOHN H. MERRILL
Mr. Merrill. Madam Chair Fudge, Ranking Member Davis, and
members of the Committee on House Administration, thank you for
the opportunity to address you today and discuss the importance
of election administration in how we can work together to
protect the 2020 election cycle and beyond.
I am John Merrill. I have the privilege to serve as
Alabama's 53rd Secretary of State. Since I took office on
January the 19, 2015, we changed the paradigm for voting in the
State of Alabama. My team and I have shattered every record in
the history of the State for voter registration and voter
participation through countless photo ID visits and voter
registration events and campaigns.
Through working with notable Alabamians, local officials,
interested agencies, key communicators, and community leaders,
we have worked to register more than 1,523,617 new voters since
January 19, 2015, and now have a State record 3,597,060
registered voters as of today. Additionally, we have broken
every record in the history of the State for voter
participation in the last five major elections. March 1, 2016,
more than 1.25 million Alabamians voting breaking every record
in the history of the State for participation in a Presidential
primary.
On November the 8, 2016, 2.1 million voting; December 12,
2017, when Senator Jones was elected to the U.S. Senate, 1.3
million Alabamians going to the polls; November the 6 of 2018,
1.7 million Alabamians shattering the State record by more than
500,000 voters.
Recently on March 3rd, almost 1.2 million Alabamians went
to the polls in spite of the nationwide COVID-19 outbreak and
severe weather conditions coming close to breaking a record for
our State primary. These numbers are important to the
importance--these numbers prove the importance of participating
in the electoral process to Alabamians, which have had a long
history of dealing with oppressive voting laws, which were at
one time written or reduced to eliminate minority participation
completely in the elections process.
We have since worked to see that it is easier than ever to
vote in Alabama by providing free voter IDs, electronic voter
registration through our mobile app, Vote for Alabama. Also,
with our website, Alabamavotes.gov, and annual visits to all 67
counties, which you can see behind me on the chart, to ensure
that each and every eligible U.S. citizen that is a resident of
our State is given the opportunity to become a registered voter
and to obtain a photo ID.
Though the political climate in Alabama is much different
than that in New York, California, Colorado, it is important
that States are given the opportunity to run their own
elections, free from Federal interference, because what works
in one State may not work in all. We have enjoyed the
opportunity to visit the polls on election day. We want to
continue to do so. We vote in person on the average of 96
percent of the people that vote vote in person.
Our office is greatly appreciative of the recent funds that
have been given to us by the Congress, but all 1,980 polling
sites in the State of Alabama will be open on election day.
Those funds will be used for different purposes. We can talk
about those during the question-and-answer time if you would
like to. We have made it easier for people to vote absentee.
The State of Alabama's code gives me the opportunity
through title 17-11-3 the opportunity to assign a reason to
vote absentee. We have done that, so we have made it easier for
all voters to be able to exercise that right. We want to
continue to make it easier to vote and harder to cheat. We also
want to note that having significant opportunities for fraud
increased through mail-in voting have been increased.
We have seen that most recently in California in 2016 where
83 ballots were mailed to one California address where just two
people lived there. In Alabama, prior to the passage and
implementation of our reform absentee voting law, we witnessed
109 absentee ballots being mailed to the mother of a mayoral
candidate in Brighton, Alabama, in 2016 and another instance
the same year where 119 absentee ballots were mailed to an
abandoned home in Wilcox County.
It should be noted that of the six voter fraud convictions
we have had in Alabama since I have been secretary, five of
them were related to absentee voting. It also should be noted
that between 2012 and 2018, 28.3 million mail-in ballots went
unaccounted for.
I ask you to consider what the cost could be for States to
adopt this cost. Ours would increase from basically $16 million
per election to more than $60 million per election and only 4
percent of our voters actually vote absentee.
I want to thank you for your time today for the work you do
for our people and for the great work you do for this, the
greatest country in the history of the world.
[The statement of Mr. Merrill follows:]
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Chairwoman Fudge. Thank you very much. I thank all of our
witnesses for their testimony today.
It is now time for our members to ask questions. I would
begin with Mr. Butterfield. You are recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. Butterfield. Let me just thank you very much, Chair
Fudge, for convening this hearing today. And thank you to the
witnesses for your testimony. I know it is a little awkward to
testify in this virtual environment, but be assured it is also
awkward for us as well. But we are making this work, and
hopefully we will have a good hearing today.
You know, our goal must be to guarantee the absolute right
of every voter to vote, whether they are a Democrat,
Republican, Independent, Libertarian, Green, or Constitution. I
think our charge is to make sure that every voter has the
absolute right to vote.
And so, Madam Chair, I am just so disappointed that many of
our Republican colleagues just cannot embrace a vote-by-mail
idea or vote-from-home idea. I think it is absolutely necessary
in this environment.
I think that some of our colleagues may be trying to
prevent a large turnout in November. I hope that is not the
case. I was looking at a poll this morning, a Gallup poll,
which said that 64 percent of those polled favor a vote-by-mail
system--64 percent. That is almost two out of three: 83 percent
Democrats; 68 percent of Independents want it; 40 percent of
Republicans wanted it.
So I think we ought to begin to reconsider any opposition
to vote by mail and to really consider how we can get it done.
And so thank you to the witnesses for your testimony. The
Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights is a very special
organization to me. Many years ago, when I was a young lawyer
in my hometown, it was the Lawyers' Committee that came in and
filed a lawsuit that challenged the city for having 23 miles of
unpaved streets in the African American community, and those
streets are now paved. And it was because of the Lawyers'
Committee.
I always like to make reference to that when we have these
hearings. Also, there were virtually no African American
elected officials in my community or in my congressional
district. And it was NAACP Legal Defense Fund that came in and
filed a voting rights lawsuit, and now we have dozens and
dozens of elected officials. So thank you to those two
witnesses and to the other witnesses as well.
To the Secretary of State from Louisiana, you made a
statement a few moments ago that we cannot cede election
authority to D.C. politicians. I am a D.C. politician. I am an
elected official of 750,000 people, and I would like to get
more clarity about the meaning and the intent of that
statement, please, if you would help me.
Mr. Ardoin. Yes, sir, Congressman, thank you for that
question. In a previous testimony that I had with Senators
Klobuchar, Wyden, and others with regards to this very issue,
during a normal Louisiana election, less than 4 percent of all
ballots are cast via absentee by mail balloting, and to surge
our absentee ballots to a 100 percent paper is neither prudent
nor practical for us. If we were forced to do so, as Secretary
Merrill was stating, we would go from a $6 million election
cost to over $12.6 million of which----
Mr. Butterfield. Suppose the Federal Government provided
100 percent of the cost, Mr. Secretary? Suppose the Federal
Government provided 100 percent of that cost, would that be
helpful?
Mr. Ardoin. If it covered 100 percent of the cost? I don't
know that it could cover 100 percent of the cost.
Mr. Butterfield. But that is our legislation, to provide
100 percent of the cost of the November election for every
State in the country. And if you have some financial concerns,
I think we need to set that aside because we proposed to pay
100 percent of the cost.
Let me go to the other secretary from Alabama. Sir, you, in
essence, said that the States need to run their own elections
free from Federal interference.
Mr. Merrill. Yes, sir.
Mr. Butterfield. Those were code words back during the
voting rights movement, code words for States' rights, and I
pushback whenever I hear that. Is that your meaning?
Mr. Merrill. Oh, yes, sir----
Mr. Butterfield. Let me just finish. Do you feel that the
Federal Government has no right under any circumstances to get
involved in State elections?
Mr. Merrill. Yes, sir, I agree with that, unless you see
that someone is violating the trust and confidence of the
process or that they are intentionally trying to reduce the
participation efforts of any one individual or any group of
individuals. That is not happening in our State.
As a matter of fact, I just shared empirical data with you
to prove that it is not happening, and we want to continue to
do what we are doing. We do believe----
Mr. Butterfield. But you said under some circumstances--you
are conceding that, under some circumstances, the Federal
Government would have some role in the State if voting rights
were being denied or affected?
Mr. Merrill. Yes, sir. If that was necessary, but in the
case, just like in the Shelby case, the Supreme Court realized
that that was not necessary at this time to continue that
oversight, and that is the reason why they ruled the way they
did, and that is the reason why we were able to change a voting
site from a community center to a church.
Mr. Butterfield. You do know that section 5 in the case
that came out of your State was not dismantled by the Supreme
Court. What the Supreme Court did was to invite the Congress to
update the formula that gives life to section 5, and so there
is a role for the Federal Government----
Chairwoman Fudge. Mr. Butterfield?
Mr. Butterfield. Yes.
Chairwoman Fudge. Mr. Butterfield, your time is up, but I
will say that, Mr. Merrill, your interpretation of Shelby is
not accurate.
I will now move to Ranking Member Davis, you are recognized
for five minutes.
Mr. Davis of Illinois. You know, thank you, Madam Chair.
And thank you to all the witnesses. I am sorry to the two
secretaries--and my colleague, Mr. Butterfield is a good friend
of mine--we know that there is a role that the Federal
Government can play. Obviously, we want to make sure that every
single person, as Republicans, Democrats, but most of all
because we are Americans, let's make sure that everybody gets a
chance to cast that vote.
And I commend what is happening in your State based on your
statistics, Secretary Merrill, that you are continuing to
increase the voter turnout. We had record voter turnout in the
States that are--in Wisconsin, in particular, and in Georgia,
two States that were mentioned during this testimony.
I like that. I want to see continued record turnout. I
certainly hope we have it in 2020, and what we are saying here,
once again, is that we want to make sure that our States are
able to address those turnout issues and make sure that they
give everybody a chance to vote.
So, with that, we know there is a role for the Federal
Government to play, Mr. Secretaries, or you guys wouldn't be
here today talking to Representatives of the Federal
Government. I appreciate your participation.
I got a couple of yes-or-no questions just for both
secretaries. Secretary Ardoin and Secretary Merrill, I am going
to go through a few yes or noes, and I will give you a chance
to expand at the end. We will start with Secretary Ardoin each
time.
Do either of your States have in place infrastructure to
support a Federal election entirely by mail?
Mr. Ardoin. No, sir.
Mr. Davis of Illinois. Mr. Merrill.
Mr. Merrill. No, sir.
Mr. Davis of Illinois. Do either of you think it is
possible for all 50 States to convert to an all-mail election
by November?
Mr. Ardoin.
Mr. Ardoin. Absolutely not.
Mr. Davis of Illinois. Mr. Merrill.
Mr. Merrill. There is no doubt it's impossible, and that is
based on experts from the States that do it best.
Mr. Davis of Illinois. What percentage of the ballots cast
in your State in 2018 were through the mail?
Mr. Ardoin. .9 percent.
Mr. Davis of Illinois. Mr. Merrill.
Mr. Merrill. Almost 4 percent, Congressman.
Mr. Davis of Illinois. Mr. Ardoin and Mr. Merrill, both of
your States allow those with a disability or illness to vote
absentee. Is that correct?
Mr. Ardoin. Yes, sir.
Mr. Merrill. Yes, sir. And we passed a law in 2019 to give
them permanent disability access through absentee.
Mr. Davis of Illinois. Those with a disability can also
vote in person if they feel that is easier for them too,
correct?
Mr. Ardoin. Correct.
Mr. Davis of Illinois. Mr. Merrill.
Mr. Merrill. Yes, sir, Congressman.
Mr. Davis of Illinois. Do both of your States have in place
protections against unlimited ballot harvesting?
Mr. Ardoin. It was just passed this legislative session
unanimously and with lots of bipartisan support.
Mr. Davis of Illinois. Mr. Merrill.
Mr. Merrill. Yes, sir, Congressman, that law has been on
the books for several years.
Mr. Davis of Illinois. Have both of you received your 2020
supplemental federal funds?
Mr. Merrill. Yes.
Mr. Davis of Illinois. Mr. Ardoin.
Mr. Ardoin. Yes, sir.
Mr. Davis of Illinois. I heard you answer, Mr. Merrill,
already. You said yes.
And are you putting these funds to use to help administer
elections in light of the COVID-19 panic?
Mr. Ardoin.
Mr. Merrill.
Mr. Merrill. Yes, sir. We are exclusively, and we have a
detailed plan that we would like to share with the members if
they would like to see it.
Mr. Davis of Illinois. Okay. If you would like to submit
that for the record, we will take that and make sure that it
gets submitted, sir.
Mr. Merrill. Yes, sir, we will.
[The information follows:]
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Mr. Davis of Illinois. Any documentation too, Secretary
Ardoin, you are more than welcome to have it for the record
too.
Mr. Ardoin. Will do. Thank you.
[The information follows:]
******** COMMITTEE INSERT ********
Mr. Davis of Illinois. Do either of you believe you need
any more federal mandates to administer your elections ahead of
the November election?
Mr. Ardoin. Absolutely not.
Mr. Davis of Illinois. Mr. Merrill.
Mr. Merrill. No, sir, I do not think so.
Mr. Davis of Illinois. Okay. Secretary Ardoin, my
understanding is that you have already put in place an
emergency plan for your upcoming State elections. Can you tell
us what that plan looks like in a very quick manner so I can
get one more question to Mr. Merrill?
Mr. Ardoin. Yes, sir. Congressman, we extended early voting
from seven days to an additional six days. So 13 days total. We
created a separate absentee by mail application process for
several reasons that you might have the COVID concerns that you
have quarantined, taking care of a family member who is
susceptible, and for the most susceptible population. And,
additionally, we have made certain that we will have all the
personal protective equipment available to voters and to the
poll workers.
Mr. Davis of Illinois. Mr. Merrill, how do you see COVID-19
impacting elections in the future?
Mr. Merrill. Congressman, it is difficult to say. That
would call for speculation and conjecture on my part. I do
think it is important to make sure that we take those factors
that have been introduced in this cycle and make sure that they
are considered whenever we are developing any plan for the
future. But to say exactly what will happen and what should
happen would be inappropriate.
Mr. Davis of Illinois. Well, thank you.
And as I have one second left, Mr. Dimondstein, thank you
very much for the hard work that your men and women at the
United States Postal Service do every year to make our
elections fair and to make sure every vote is counted.
I yield back.
Chairwoman Fudge. Thank you.
Mr. Aguilar, you are recognized for five minutes.
Mr. Aguilar. Thank you, Madam Chair. I appreciate the
opportunity and appreciate our panelists here today.
It should be the goal of this Committee to remove the
barriers that prevent Americans from voting. Right now, that
means making sure voting is safe in the midst of a global
pandemic that has killed more than 110,000 in our country.
Despite the claims made by the minority on this Committee,
there is no significant risk of voter fraud associated with
ballot assistance. Instead, we know that these methods allow
more people to safely participate in our democracy. Recently,
the minority crafted a 12-page report that goes from logical
leap to logical leap to conflate a small possible risk of abuse
with likely voter fraud. I find this conclusion to be untrue
and unsupported by any of the tenuous points that they
presented in their report.
This 12-page report does not give a single example in which
California has experienced ballot return fraud, yet they keep
coming back to this issue. We all know that examples of voter
fraud are exceedingly rare, especially when compared to the
tens of millions of votes that are cast each year, but
something that we don't hear a lot about, especially from the
President, even though, he, himself, votes by mail, I would
like to direct this to Ms. Clarke and Mr. Norden.
I would love to hear more about the processes election
administrators go through to ensure the integrity of the ballot
processes.
Ms. Clarke. Thank you for that question, Congressman. In
our view, there are already safe mechanisms in place that
ensure that absentee ballots are cast safely, securely, and
with integrity. The rules vary State by State. There are some
States that have in place absentee ballot verification
requirements. And we are deeply concerned that those rules and
restrictions are not administered in an unfair and
discriminatory manner. There are stiff penalties on the books
that serve as a deterrent to fraud.
And as you note, the instances of fraud are exceedingly
rare and used as pretext to impose burdens that prove unfair to
voters. So, in our view, it is about opening up access; that is
the challenge that we are up against. And fraud is, indeed,
exceedingly rare in our democracy.
Mr. Norden. Thank you, Congressman, for the question. I
will just add, I agree that mail ballot fraud is exceptionally
rare. The Brennan Center has calculated that the rate of mail
balloting fraud is lower than the rate of Americans to be
struck by lightning. That is true for mail ballot, and it is
true for in-person voting.
We know how to do mail balloting securely. We have had mail
balloting since the civil war. The military has voted since
that time by mail. And States have a variety of steps that they
take to prevent fraud and to detect and capture any kind of
attack on the system. Very common step that every State has is
they have a secrecy envelope for mail ballots. Election
officials use that secrecy envelope to verify the identity of a
voter. They do that with personal information or a signature
often.
States have adopted ballot tracking the same way you would
track a package from Amazon. States have software now that
allows the voter and the election official to track that ballot
every step of the way and to prevent any kind of tampering or
discarding of the ballot. And it also allows, to the extent
that any ballot has been called into question, an election
official to remove that ballot if they have concerns about it.
I would finally say, one of the real benefits of mail
ballots is that they are hand-marked paper ballots. And, of
course, we are dealing with very real cybersecurity threats
that the intelligence agencies have warned us about. With a
paper ballot, we can do an audit afterwards to make sure that
the machines that are tallying those votes are doing so
accurately.
So I think there is a lot of opportunity for ensuring that
our systems are as secure as possible.
Mr. Aguilar. And I agree. I think we would all agree. There
are instances where there is voter fraud. We need to do
everything we can. Recently, and I would just put this on the
radar for the Chair and the Ranking Member, it has been
reported that police officer Derek Chauvin is a--voted in the
Florida election while being a Minnesota police officer.
So I think in all of these cases where there is voter
fraud, even though it is rare, we need to do everything we can
to call attention to it and to prosecute those individuals who
are committing of those crimes.
With that, thanks so much, Madam Chair.
Chairwoman Fudge. Thank you very much.
Mr. Loudermilk, you are recognized for five minutes.
Mr. Loudermilk. Thank you, Madam Chair.
I appreciate the opportunity to participate in this forum,
especially right after Georgia's election, which clearly did
have some issues, which was brought up. I don't think it is
constructive, though, to immediately cast blame on that there
is voter suppression or that there was ill-intent in what went
on in Georgia because, first of all, there is no evidence of
that. And, second of all, if we are going to fix problems for
other States in coming elections, this is a good time to look
at what problems were faced in Georgia.
Just a little background. Georgia has 159 counties. Our
State law requires that each county has their own elected
election--their own election official, which runs the elections
in every county, from everything of sending out the absentee
ballots that were requested, to running the polling places, to
training the poll workers, and recruiting the poll workers.
The Secretary of State provides the tools to do that and
trains the trainer. Of the 159 counties in Georgia, yesterday,
150 of those counties reported no significant problems
whatsoever across the State. Seven counties did encounter
problems. Seven of those counties rectified their problems very
early on and were able to reduce the lines that were quite long
and continued on and reported that the system worked very well.
Of the two counties, 80 percent of the problems we saw were
in one county, Fulton County. And as we go through what
happened in the county was a series of events. There was
nothing nefarious that went on. If there was any voter
suppression in that county, then it was--it would have been
done by the local county officials, which are all Democrats at
this point.
So there was no voter suppression involved in this that we
could tell. The State is investigating to see what happened so
we can rectify the problems. We do know that the county
election officials did not get the absentee ballots to the
vendor in time to get out and then didn't notify those voters
affected that they weren't going to receive absentee ballots.
There were last-minute changes to polling precincts. Why
were those changed? Because the county officials and the fire
departments made the decision they couldn't use certain fire
departments as polling places because of the fear of COVID-19
spreading to the firemen. Churches, which traditionally were
voting precincts, had decided they could not have their
churches open as voting precincts because of the fear of COVID-
19.
These are things that should have been addressed early on,
and they weren't. Poll workers were brought in at the last
minute because, quite frankly, in most of our counties, the
poll workers are elderly, which are in a critical class, and
they did not feel comfortable coming in to work. The problem
was the county tried to do all of the poll worker training
online instead of face-to-face training to where they could
ensure that there was proficiency.
So the voting machines worked fine. We have voting machines
that do produce a paper ballot, and you get to verify the paper
ballot. I voted in-person early voting. And you get to verify
that. So you do have the paper ballot as an audit trail that
that is the way that you voted.
The issues we must address, those in Georgia, I think it
was a good test being a primary election before we get into
November that we can actually rectify these problems. The
legislature may look at giving more power to the secretary of
state to intervene and rectify problems if the local officials
are not able to resolve them themselves, but it is not
productive to immediately jump on the idea that there was
something nefarious that went on in the election system. We are
not going to fix the problems that way.
I do appreciate something that was just said, is that we
have been doing voting by mail for many years, and it has
worked well. I will agree with that. The reason it has worked
well is because it has been run at the State level, and every
State is different. What I am objecting to and what the two
secretaries of state and most of the secretaries of state I
talk to are objecting to, is the Federal takeover of the
election system and the mandates.
So I laid that out. One question I have for Secretary
Ardoin. You have mentioned that you have made some changes to
be able to handle your elections better during the COVID
crisis, and as we saw in Georgia, there is still some changes
that we are going to have to make.
Are there any adjustments that you plan to make for
election day in Louisiana based on some of the information you
have seen or what happened in Georgia?
Mr. Ardoin. Well, basically, what we are trying to do is
increase our number of commissioners available to assist voters
with social distancing and to be able to access the ballot in
terms of in-person voting, especially during the extended early
voting days.
On election day, with the absentee ballot expansion program
that we have put forth and for our 65 and older absentee
program, we have seen a large increase in the number of
applications for absentee voting. We feel comfortable with that
process because we are able to verify signatures and addresses.
Our concern is that if we don't have that process in place,
then we would probably be mailing ballots to addresses that
people no longer live at.
I think you can take the quote from ProPublica in a March
24 piece that said, quote----
Chairwoman Fudge. Could you please wrap up? His time has
expired.
Mr. Ardoin. Yes, ma'am. Among the possible downsides of a
quick transition are increased voter fraud, logistical snafus,
and reduced turn out among voters who move frequently or lack a
mailing address. That is important to the process that we make
sure that the voter is at the address where the ballot is being
sent.
Chairwoman Fudge. Thank you so much.
Mrs. Davis, you are recognized for five minutes.
Mrs. Davis of California. Thank you very much, Madam Chair.
Thank you for having me for this panel today.
Secretary Merrill, you said in your testimony that you have
encouraged anyone who is concerned about contracting or
spreading COVID-19 to apply for and cast an absentee ballot
through the July primary runoff under the physical illness or
infirmity excuse.
Mr. Merrill. Yes.
Mrs. Davis of California. But many public health experts
are acknowledging that there is a good chance that we will see
a resurgence of COVID-19 in the fall. So I am wondering, for
one thing, what would success in this area look like for you?
What are you looking for? If you are giving people the excuse--
and, as I will mention in a second, they still have to go
through a number of hoops--but what would that look like to
you? What would be success that you have changed this?
Mr. Merrill. Yes, ma'am. Yes, ma'am. They just have to
continue to do what they have been doing for years as far as
applying for an absentee ballot and then successfully
submitting that, of course, with their qualified photo ID. And
in doing that, I would say that success would mean that we
didn't have issues related to people attempting to do that and
being able to do so successfully. And so far our numbers have
indicated that that is exactly what is happening.
As of yesterday, more than 20,500 absentee ballot
applications had been requested, which is not an inordinate
number, but it is higher than you normally see for a runoff.
But if we are still where we are today as we move toward
November, we will calculate what we need to do in order to
provide this type service for our voters when we go to the
general election in November.
Mrs. Davis of California. So can you commit then to
extending this expansion of absentee ballot eligibility for the
November election if you believe, in fact, that it was
successful?
Mr. Merrill. Yes, ma'am. And one of the things that needs
to be understood is that the reason that I am able to designate
that particular excuse provision for our voters is because the
Governor has declared a state of emergency in Alabama. Now that
will be expiring sometime in the next month or so. And if she
extends that, then I will be in a position to do that as well
based on her----
Mrs. Davis of California. Yeah. Well, one of the reasons
that you have a lot of specifications in terms of excuses, as I
understand it, you want the elections to be more secure----
Mr. Merrill. Yes.
Mrs. Davis of California [continuing]. But can you explain
to me, what is the difference between having somebody who works
10 hours have an excuse and somebody who works 9 hours not have
an excuse? And, I mean, how much time do you have to have
people spending to be able to slice and dice, you know, exactly
the excuses that people are presenting? How do you know that
people might be fearing COVID versus----
Mr. Merrill. And the answer to the question is we don't. As
a matter of fact, one of the things that I think is time for
our legislature to do is to revisit the excuse provisions that
are a part of the absentee ballot process. We actually provided
support for a bill that we wrote in 2017 that was carried by an
African American senator from Birmingham to change and enhance
the absentee process which resulted in a successful passage of
that legislation in 2019, but in 2017, as we started that
process, part of that bill was to eliminate the provisions for
excuses to be offered.
Mrs. Davis of California. So perhaps doing away with those
because, in addition to allowing for COVID-19, I mean, you are
also requiring that people find a notary. So it has to be
notarized. Is that correct?
Mr. Merrill. Yes, ma'am. They could have two witnesses. It
does not have to be----
Mrs. Davis of California. They could have two witnesses. So
we are doing social distancing now, so why would you put people
in a position to be in close contact with another two people
signing--having to look at a signature together with that
person as well as a notary? I mean, it sounds to me like you
are adding some steps for people that are unnecessary.
Mr. Merrill. No, ma'am. Matter fact, people have not had a
difficult time protesting things that have been important to
them in the last few days. So if they are interested in voting,
they will be interested in contacting their neighbor to secure
the signature that is required in order for their ballot to be
counted for the candidate of their choice.
Mrs. Davis of California. And you need probably a number of
people to be able to check all these things. So perhaps you
could put that effort in another way.
I wanted to ask you because you have a lot of numbers in
front of you, in your head, I am sure. I appreciate that.
Mr. Merrill. Yes, ma'am.
Mrs. Davis of California. But you said there were six
convictions for voter fraud in Alabama. How many ballots were
cast during that time?
Mr. Merrill. Oh, several million.
Mrs. Davis of California. Is this the last election you are
talking about?
Mr. Merrill. Oh, no, ma'am. No, ma'am. That is since
January 19, 2015, when I became----
Mrs. Davis of California. Okay. How many ballots?
Mr. Merrill. Oh, millions.
Mrs. Davis of California. Millions. And what percentage of
those ballots cast--what percentage, you know, resulted in
convictions for voter fraud?
Mr. Merrill. Well, we have had six convictions on voter
fraud, two elections overturned, and one elected official
removed because of what occurred in those elections processes,
but this is the point that I wanted to make sure that we made.
It is very important to remember that, whether there was one or
whether there were 10,001 convictions, it is just like refusing
the right to allow someone to vote or register to vote; if you
are making it difficult for them to participate in the process,
that should never be tolerated, and voter fraud should never be
tolerated.
Mrs. Davis of California. Of course. Of course. None of us
here, I can assure you, sir----
Chairwoman Fudge. Mrs. Davis, your time is expired.
Mrs. Davis of California [continuing]. Nobody on this panel
believes in having the fraud, but you need to look at that
percentage. And also what is different between an uncast ballot
and an unaccounted for ballot. A lot of people choose not to
vote in the end for a variety of reasons.
Thank you, sir.
Chairwoman Fudge. Thank you, Mrs. Davis.
Mr. Raskin, you are recognized for five minutes. Thank you.
Mr. Raskin. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Ms. Ifill, I want to come to you because I am very
concerned about what I saw in Georgia. It seemed like there was
a lot of chaos there. People were blaming it on high turnout. I
would hope we would not consider high turnout a problem. That
is what we are seeking. But today I have heard a lot of
criticism of vote by mail. And is vote by mail uniquely
susceptible to fraud?
Ms. Ifill. Not particularly, Representative Raskin. And I
think it is really quite alarming just hearing the conversation
in which we have talked about money, we have talked about how
much things might cost, we have talked about fraud, and we
actually have not really focused, at least in terms of hearing
the secretaries of state of two States with which I am in
litigation at the moment, talk about people and particularly
talk about the large African American populations in each of
their States who are susceptible to COVID and particularly
African Americans who suffer from preexisting health conditions
and disabled populations in their State. And we really haven't
heard either secretary address what that means and what it
means for those voters.
So when we talk about these absentee convictions that
Secretary Merrill is talking about, six convictions he says.
And I don't know the nature of those, but that is actually very
few as has been pointed out in comparison to votes cast. And
both of the secretaries have talked about how few in their
States tend to vote absentee. We are here having this
conversation because we are in the midst of a global pandemic.
Many more people will want to vote absentee, and we saw
that in Georgia. We saw how many people didn't receive the
ballots. We saw how many people came out to vote, but found
that their polling places were changed. We understand, as we
heard earlier from Representative Loudermilk, that many people
who work in polling places are elderly and, therefore, will
call out and won't want to work on election day and expose
themselves to COVID.
And I haven't heard what are the comprehensive plans to
deal with that and to protect the population that is most
vulnerable and who want to participate fully in the political
process. Identifying six voter fraud convictions over a number
of years simply doesn't cancel that out.
Mr. Raskin. So I understand that voter registration rates
have plummeted because of COVID-19. I consider that really
alarming. What can be done to deal with that problem?
Ms. Ifill. So, first of all, I also want to correct the
record because Secretary Merrill talked about the increase in
voter registration in the State of Alabama. I just want--and he
also talked about the Federal role. I do want to point out that
the State of Alabama has to enter into memorandums of agreement
with both the Department of Justice and with the NAACP in 2014
and 2015 for their failure to comply with registration
provisions in the National Voter Registration Act.
This is exactly why you need civil rights litigations. This
is why you need the Federal authority, and so, to extent they
are touting those numbers, we should be very clear that it
required intervention to make sure that in public benefits
offices and in the DMV, they were doing the registration that
they need to do.
We need more online registration. We don't want people to
have to engage in-person in any of these offices if they don't
have to and especially if they are disabled and especially if
they are particularly vulnerable to COVID infection. And so we
want to increase the possibility of people being able to
register online. We want to increase the possibility of people
being able to absentee vote. We want to increase the
possibility of them being able to absentee vote without having
to engage in physical contact with a notary.
We have elderly people who are separated from their
children. Their children don't want to come see them because
they want to make sure that they are safe, and yet they have to
have two witnesses sign their absentee ballots in Alabama, one
witness in Louisiana.
Mr. Raskin. I want to shift to Kristen Clarke.
Ms. Clarke, it is at the heart of American self-
understanding that we believe in the right of every citizen to
vote and to have his or her vote counted and to be part of
self-government through the system of elections, and yet, at
the same time, when you look at it historically, there has
always been tremendous opposition and resistance to letting
everybody vote, and there have been a whole series of very
fancy rationales put up to explain why you really need to own
property in order to vote so you are invested in the community
or you really need to achieve certain levels of literacy before
you could vote or you needed to live in a certain place long
enough before you could vote.
How do you explain this paradox that we believe very
strongly in the right to vote and yet there are always people
ginning up some justification for trying to keep other people
from casting their ballots?
Ms. Clarke. I have to say that the opposition that we are
seeing to absentee balloting is illogical and difficult to
understand because this has been a feature of our voting system
that extends back to the 1800s when people in the military were
allowed to vote by mail.
We send ballots overseas to those serving the United States
proudly. We send ballots overseas to citizens who may be living
temporarily abroad without issue or without concerns about
fraud. So we can send ballots down the street to ensure that
people during the middle of a global pandemic that is impacting
Americans from every corner but disproportionately people of
color, we can send ballots down the street to ensure that they
have voice this season.
Mr. Raskin. I yield back.
Thank you very much.
Chairwoman Fudge. Thank you all very, very much. I really
think I pretty much heard everything I need to hear today. I
want to thank all the witnesses.
Mr. Davis, do you have any closing comments?
Mr. Davis of Illinois.
Thank you, everyone. I appreciate the opportunity to be
here. We have heard from our witnesses. Thank you for your
testimony.
And before I yield back, Madam Chair, I ask unanimous
consent to enter into the record three items: a letter from 14
secretaries of state regarding Federal funding, a letter from
the Niskanen Center, and a statement from Representative
Loudermilk on one of his staffers who lives in Maryland
receiving multiple live absentee ballots to his address.
And I yield back.
Chairwoman Fudge. Without objection.
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Chairwoman Fudge. Let me just close by saying this. I have
listened to this hearing, and I am so disappointed. You know,
there is a little thing, Mr. Secretaries, called the
Constitution of the United States that allows us to do what we
are doing today. Whether you like it or not, that is the law.
Secondly, I think it is just so misleading to continually
talk about fraud. It is just nothing but a front; it is just
foolishness. So you would punish the many to catch one. That is
not the American way for anyone. You know, we talk about
cheats. You talked about 83 ballots going to one address. If
your office didn't catch that, I think that your office may be
not as competent as it ought to be.
You didn't get 83 ballots from those people. So I think
that, at some point, we have to all do what is right for the
people of this country, and we cannot continue to spread these
misleading and false statements about this widespread fraud. It
doesn't exist. You have no proof of it. You talk about it, and
you have not one iota of proof to support it. You know, the
Georgia thing--you know, in law, we have a saying that the
thing speaks for itself, and the Georgia situation does speak
for itself.
So I would say nothing more about that but to say that, if
we all want for every American to exercise their unfettered,
unabridged right to vote, we need to stop this foolishness now
and do whatever it takes to make sure that every American has
the right to vote.
Panelists, I thank you all so much for being with us today.
I hope that you continue to do the good work that the people of
this Nation expected you to do. That includes the secretaries
as well. I am sure they are well-meaning people, but I think
that you need to be honest with yourself and honest with the
people that you represent.
Without objection, this hearing is adjourned. Have a great
day everybody.
[Whereupon, at 2:46 p.m., the Subcommittee was adjourned.]
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