Last Wednesday, the Joint Center hosted an online briefing on accessible vote-by-mail and safe in-person voting for Black communities. The session explored safeguards to ensure an accessible vote-by-mail system that does not dilute Black votes (e.g., prepaid postage, a postmark deadline of Election Day, the ability for third parties to collect and return sealed ballots, and quick notification of and ability to remedy any signature matching issues—see this Brennan Center brief showing vote-by-mail racial disparities without these safeguards). Participants also discussed the need to maintain sanitized and uncrowded in-person polling places for those who choose not to vote-by-mail.

Participants included:

Fair Fight Founder Stacey Abrams

Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson

Black Voters Matter Fund Co-Founder LaTosha Brown

Lawyers' Committee President Kristen Clarke

Leadership Conference President Vanita Gupta

NAACP LDF President Sherrilyn Ifill

Joint Center President Spencer Overton

The session was organized in pghts and the NAACP LDF.

Legislators continue to rally for improved voting options and conditions amid COVID-19 concerns. Former first lady Michelle Obama’s non-partisan organization publicly supported legislation sponsored by U.S. Senators Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) to expand early in-person voting and mail-in voting in response to the COVID-19 pandemic (CNN). U.S. Senator Kamala Harris (D-CA) introduced legislation Thursday to authorize $5 billion in spending to improve voting options (The Hill). Congresswomen Marcia Fudge (D-OH) and Terri Sewell (D-AL) spoke to ESSENCE about the steps the Congressional Black Caucus is taking to help protect voters ahead of the 2020 elections. U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-FL) is advocating for more funding for the U.S. postal service in anticipation of an influx of mail-in ballots (Florida Daily).

Amid Georgia’s record breaking request for absentee ballots (AJC) for the state’s June 9 primary, activists caution against mail-in ballots and identify other challenges that may pertain specifically to Black voters nationally. Allison Riggs of the Southern Coalition for Social Justice points out that Black voters tend to prefer in-person voting because of historical trauma during the Jim Crow era (Georgia Recorder). Diallo Brooks of People for the American Way, Rashad Robinson of Color of Change PAC, The Raben Group and the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights, and All Voting is Local in Ohio all explored remedies to protect the Black vote in upcoming elections.