The Washington Post - 21.03.2020

SATURDAy, MARCH 21 , 2020. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ RE A

COLORADO

Remains found in Fla.

believed to be boy’s

Human r emains found in
Florida are believed to be t hose of
a Colorado boy reported missing
in January by his stepmother,
who was later arrested and
charged w ith killing him,
authorities s aid Friday.
The El Paso County S heriff’s
Office said t he r emains of 11-year-
old G annon Stauch were found i n
Pace, on the Florida Panhandle.
Investigators a re a sking for
information f rom anyone who
saw the boy’s s tepmother, L etecia
Stauch, in Pace or nearby
Pensacola between Feb. 3 and
Feb. 5.
Stauch reported Gannon
missing Jan. 2 7, s aying he never
returned t o his Colorado S prings
home after leaving to g o to a
friend’s h ouse. Authorities
initially c alled h im a runaway b ut
three days later said h e was
considered missing and
endangered d ue to his age and t he
amount of time he had been gone.
After a search that lasted f or
weeks came up e mpty,
investigators presumed t he boy
was d ead and arrested t he
stepmother in Myrtle Beach, S.C.,
on March 2.
— A ssociated Press

WISCONSIN

Man charged in 2008

killing of student

A 53-year-old m an was charged
Friday in the 2008 killing of a
University of Wisconsin at
Madison student w ho was found

strangled and s tabbed i n her

downtown a partment after she

returned h ome f rom class.

David Kahl was charged w ith

first-degree intentional homicide

as a party to a crime and by use of

a dangerous weapon. The charges

come 12 years after the April 2,

2008, death o f Brittany

Zimmermann, 2 1. K ahl w as in

custody Friday on a drunken

driving offense.

Kahl’s name h ad b een

mentioned in connection w ith

Zimmermann’s d eath b efore, but

police did not name h im as a

suspect. In A ugust, they learned

that Kahl’s D NA m atched the

DNA found on t he seal of an

envelope. T hat letter, received by

authorities i n April 2009, had a

return address of Fox Lake

Correctional Institution and

indicated it was from an i nmate

who said h e overheard another

inmate discuss b eing involved i n

Zimmermann’s d eath.

According to t he c riminal

complaint, Kahl was in

Zimmerman’s n eighborhood at

the t ime of her d eath, and had

been knocking o n doors a nd

asking people for m oney, s aying

he needed t o fix a flat tire. One

witness s aid he c ame into h er

house, and she told h im to leave.

— A ssociated Press

Customer delivers baby in

Walmart: Customers cheered at a

Walmart in Springfield, Mo., after

a woman gave birth to a baby girl

in the store’s t oilet p aper a isle.

Store manager Jessica Hinkle

said the w oman told employees

Wednesday that her w ater b roke.

Hinkle held up a sheet for privacy

while a labor nurse who

happened to be in the s tore and

firefighters h elped t he woman

deliver her baby in just 45

minutes, KYTV r eported. Hinkle

said she contacted t he w oman

Thursday and both m om and

baby are doing well.

— A ssociated Press

DIGEST

ERIC ALBRECHT/COLUMBUS DISPATCH/ASSOCIATED PRESS

A postal carrier delivers mail Friday near G alloway, Ohio. Thousands were left without power after

severe thunderstorms knocked down trees and closed roads across the state. The National Weather Service

measured more than 3 inches of rain at John Glenn Columbus International Airport.

Politics & the Nation

BY ISAAC STANLEY-BECKER

As states across the country

took steps this week to make vot-

ing easier in light of the novel

coronavirus, the Republican-con-

trolled legislature in Kentucky ap-

proved a new measure requiring a

government-issued photo ID to

vote, prompting an outcry from

voting-rights groups.

Lawmakers sent the bill to the

governor’s desk before recessing

until March 26 because of the

pandemic, which claimed a sec-

ond life in the state Thursday.

Nationally, the spread of the

disease has brought public life to a

standstill, forcing elections offi-

cials to postpone contests and

encourage citizens to register

their preferences by mail. Ken-

tucky is among the states post-

poning voting in light of the out-

break, as state officials an-

nounced this week that the presi-

dential primary scheduled for

May 19 would instead take place

on June 23.

“In no uncertain terms, we con-

demn the a doption of a restrictive

photo-ID law at a moment when

voters face unprecedented obsta-

cles to the ballot box,” Kristen

Clarke, the president and execu-

tive director of the National Law-

yers’ Committee for Civil Rights

Under Law, said in an interview.

“Many people in Kentucky aren’t

even able to visit a state office to

obtain ID given office closures

and other crisis-related obstacles.

Lawmakers s hould be working on

ensuring access to the polls in

2020, and this bill runs fully con-

trary to that.”

Aides to the state’s Democratic

governor, Andy Beshear, declined

to forecast whether he planned to

sign the measure into law, saying

he hadn’t had a chance to review

the final language. He has 10 days

to decide what to do. Beshear, who

restored voting rights to former

felons in an executive order days

after he took office, previously

said he opposed “unnecessary

roadblocks” to voting.

But the governor’s power to

block the measure, which would

go into effect for the November

election, is limited.

Its lead sponsor, Republican

State Sen. Robby Mills, said Re-

publican supermajorities in both

chambers would move to override

a veto.

Mills defended the legislation,

which was introduced before the

pandemic, as an effort to “build

confidence in the election pro-

cess.” He also said voters could

“get a free photo ID at any circuit

court clerk’s office.” But the s tate’s

court system has largely shuttered

as a result of the pandemic, and

numerous county clerk’s offices

have closed entirely to the public.

“Photo ID is the standard iden-

tification these days, a nd we think

people should show a photo ID to

vote,” Mills said.

V oting advocates and civil-lib-

erties groups view matters differ-

ently.

“The General Assembly missed

an opportunity to move legisla-

tion ensuring every Kentuckian

who wants to vote in the resched-

uled primary in June can do so

safely,” said Corey Shapiro, the

legal director of the American

Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky.

Current guidelines in Kentucky

require some form of identifica-

tion but allow materials like mail

or a credit card, or even a poll

worker vouching for a voter. Un-

der the new legislation, only gov-

ernment-issued IDs would be al-

lowed.

Shapiro warned, “Thousands

of people who do not meet the

newly mandated identification

requirements will have to choose

between exposing themselves to

covid-19 to obtain identification,

or being forced to sit on the side-

lines on Election Day.”

[email protected]

Kentucky’s

photo-ID bill

adds a new

voting hurdle

BY AMY GARDNER

AND ISAAC STANLEY-BECKER

The rapidly escalating corona-
virus pandemic has forced elec-
tion officials to consider a sober-
ing reality: The crisis could run
headlong into November’s presi-
dential election, and revamping
America’s voting systems before
then could be difficult and in
some cases impossible.
Even as they postpone upcom-
ing primaries, state and local
officials are racing to find longer-
term solutions to ensure that the
public can safely vote on Nov. 3.
While there is growing consensus
that voting by mail is the safest
way to cast ballots during a pan-
demic, implementing that system
across the country is a huge
undertaking that may not be
possible, particularly in states
where it is limited by law.
In the past week, elections
officials have been swapping ad-
vice on what it would take: enor-
mous orders of printed ballots
and envelopes, high-speed scan-
ners capable of counting the re-
turns and in some cases constitu-
tional amendments to lift restric-
tions on who may vote by mail —
and hundreds of millions of dol-
lars to pay for it all.
“The main thing we’ve dis-
cussed is how difficult it would be
to go to vote-by-mail in a state
where so few people do it,” said
Patrick Gannon, spokesman for
the North Carolina State Board of
Elections, noting that only about
4 percent of voters in his state
cast ballots by mail in the 2016
presidential contest. “It’s not
something that you can turn
around overnight.”
That has left voting advocates
and political scientists sounding
the alarm that states need imme-
diate help from the federal gov-
ernment — or the prospect of a
fair election in November is at
risk.
This week’s chaotic primaries
previewed what could come:
Ohio canceled voting hours be-
fore voting was set to begin, the
Phoenix area shuttered a third of
its voting places, hundreds of
scared poll workers called in sick
in Florida and voters showed up
to closed polls in Illinois.
On Friday, Indiana became the
seventh state to push back its
presidential primary because of
the pandemic.
Neither the states nor the pres-
ident have the power to delay
November’s general election, a
date set by Congress. But if the
pandemic worsens and gover-
nors order residents to stay
home, that could be tantamount
to canceling the election if no

other voting options are avail-

able.

“We have time to prepare, now,

to ensure that these elections can

take place, fairly, under any cir-

cumstances, and even if public

health concerns prevent people

from going to the polling booths

to vote,” wrote more than 300

academics in an open letter to

Congress. “In the entire history of

the United States, there has never

been a missed election.”

The group is urging Congress

to establish national standards

for preparing and modifying poll-

ing places, expanding early and

mail-in voting, expanding online

voter registration and educating

voters.

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.)

introduced a new version of a bill

this week that would require

mail-in balloting and early in-

person voting to be offered in

every state, and would provide

hundreds of millions in assis-

tance for states to implement the

changes.

“This country has a great tradi-

tion of being able to move really

quick when our values are on the

line, and I don’t know what’s

more valuable than the right to

vote,” Wyden, whose state pio-

neered mail voting in 1998, said

in an interview this week.

So far, however, Republicans

have not indicated support for

the bill.

Only five states in the nation —

Colorado, Hawaii, Oregon, Utah

and Washington — were set to

conduct elections this year in

which the vast majority of voters

cast their ballots by mail. All of

them have taken years to imple-

ment their programs, acquire the

resources to distribute and count

mail ballots on a large scale, and

educate the public on how it

works.

A bout two-thirds of states al-

low voters to cast their ballots by

mail for any reason. But in most,

only a small portion of the popu-

lation chooses to do so.

Dramatically scaling up will be

difficult, officials said.

Judd Choate, the elections di-

rector in Colorado, said he has

received calls from counterparts

in 11 states this week seeking

advice on how to broaden their

vote-by-mail programs.

“Everybody comes at it with

the same question: ‘How can I get

to a full vote-by-mail program by

November?’ ” Choate said. “They

are trying to pivot very quickly, to

find out if it is even possible.”

The answer, Choate said, is

probably no. “You’ve got to train

thousands of people. You’ve got to

completely change how people

are doing this. And in some states

it’s going to require a statutory

change.”

Benjamin Hovland, chairman

of the U.S. Election Assistance

Commission, said he anticipates

that every jurisdiction in the

nation will experience an uptick

in mail-in voting this year as a

result of the pandemic.

Hovland said he was scheduled

to conduct a Zoom video confer-

ence call Friday with election

officials in Washington, Orange

County, Calif., and Weaver Coun-

ty, Utah — where all registered

voters will receive ballots in the

mail. He plans to record the call

and make it available to other

jurisdictions.

One major hurdle will be deal-

ing with a variety of laws on the

books that govern absentee bal-

lots. Roughly a third of the states

require a reason for voters to

qualify for mail-in balloting —

such as an illness or travel obliga-

tions.

Some states go even further. In

the wake of a ballot-tampering

scandal in 2018, North Carolina

passed legislation requiring two

witnesses to sign a ballot — and

prohibiting third parties from

delivering it. Lawmakers are re-

considering those rules given

that many voters may be home-

bound or in quarantine as a result

of the virus.

Florida requires ballot signa-

tures to match a signature on file

but doesn’t require giving voters

an opportunity to fix a ballot if it

is rejected.

In some states, officials said

they worry about the threat of

coercion if voters are filling out

their ballots at home. Colorado

solved that problem by allowing

any voter to vote in person, an act

that voids a mailed ballot.

Delaware’s elections commis-

sioner, Anthony Albence, said his

office would need additional re-

sources to send out and then

receive so many mailed ballots.

But an even more significant

barrier, he said, are constitution-

al and statutory limits on absen-

tee and mail-in voting.

Jay Ashcroft, Missouri’s secre-

tary of state, said legislative ac-

tion, or a waiving of requirements

by the governor or state Supreme

Court, would be necessary to

remove the need for an excuse.

“My ability to fix this alone is

virtually zero,” he said.

Meanwhile, civil rights groups

are concerned about another po-

tential problem: that switching to

an all-mail system could be so

jarring to unaccustomed voters

that some could wind up not

participating.

The American Civil Liberties

Union of Te xas on Thursday ad-

vised the state to continue with

in-person voting while expand-

ing mail-in options, fearful that

an all-mail election could “disen-

franchise vulnerable and espe-

cially low-income communities,”

said Thomas Buser-Clancy, a se-

nior staff attorney for the ACLU

of Te xas.

Morgan Jackson, a Democratic

political consultant in North Car-

olina, said transient students

“don’t do a lot by mail” — and

minority communities tend to

vote disproportionately in person

on Election Day.

“You’re talking about people

who have had the vote denied to

them for years, going back to the

Jim Crow era,” Jackson said.

“Now telling them they can’t vote

in person and have to mail some-

thing in — that’s a real step.”

Some states, including Virgin-

ia, plan to expand voting by mail

without eliminating in-person

voting. They are looking at other

ways to thin crowds and other-

wise protect voters and poll

workers on Election Day: recruit-

ing younger people, such as stu-

dents and teachers, to replace the

generally older population that

staffs precincts across the coun-

try; lengthening the period of

in-person early voting; and stock-

ing up on sanitizing supplies to

avoid the shortages that plagued

primaries in Arizona, Florida and

Illinois this week.

Local officials are already get-

ting creative. In Bristol, Va., a

small city in the far southwestern

corner of the state, election offi-

cials began offering in-person ab-

sentee voting Friday for the city’s

May 5 municipal elections. Vir-

ginia requires a reason to allow

in-person or mail-in absentee

voting until July 1, when a new

law goes into effect lifting that

restriction. But Gov. Ralph

Northam (D) has ordered all elec-

tion officials to allow voters to use

the pandemic as a reason.

Penny Limburg, Bristol’s gen-

eral registrar, said they have used

an old drive-through window in

their building, which once

housed a utility company, only

sporadically in past elections

when voters were unable to exit

their cars, such as cancer patients

with compromised immune sys-

tems. This year the window will

be available to all voters, she said.

“I’m pleased we’ve been able to

adjust and think it out,” she said,

though she said the window, mi-

crophone and drawer are “old

and glitchy.”

North Carolina will also look at

eliminating the requirement that

poll workers may only work in

precincts in the county where

they live. Expanding curbside

voting, which is widely offered to

meet the requirements of the

Americans With Disabilities Act,

is also being explored, but several

election officials said it is slow

and expensive because of how

much manpower is needed.

In some states, officials are

brainstorming ways to expand

mail-in voting without mandat-

ing it for everyone. Several are

looking at postage-paid enve-

lopes as well as switching their

style of envelope to feature a

peel-off adhesive that eliminates

the need for licking. And some

that require voters to request a

mail-in ballot in person or by

mail are trying to allow such

requests to be made online.

Some states are already claim-

ing emergency authority to ex-

pand mail-in voting. West Virgin-

ia’s secretary of state, Mac War-

ner, said Wednesday that his of-

fice would “ramp up” absentee

options for the state’s May 12

primary, following an advisory

opinion from the state’s attorney

general that alternative forms of

balloting could be expanded dur-

ing a state of emergency.

New York is also weighing a

range of options, as elections

officials there took note of

Wyden’s bill. In an executive or-

der over the weekend, Gov. An-

drew M. Cuomo (D) made the

“potential for contraction of the

COVID-19 virus” count as a “tem-

porary illness” authorizing ab-

sentee-ballot requests for elec-

tions on or before April 1.

[email protected]

[email protected]

Amid pandemic, a race to secure 2020 election

P ENNY LIMBURG

E lections director Jeff Miller on Friday helps a voter cast an

absentee ballot for May 5 municipal elections in Bristol, Va.

Officials weigh whether

there’s enough time to

implement mail-in voting

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