8 The Nation. April 6, 2020
to set a new state record for a presiden-
tial primary, according to Secretary of
State Kim Wyman.”
Things have not gone as smooth-
ly in states where in-person voting
on Election Day remains common.
Louisiana postponed its primary from
April 4 to June 20, Georgia moved its
election from March 24 to May 19,
and Ohio announced on the eve of its
March 17 primary that voting would
be “delayed.”
In Maricopa, Arizona’s most-
populous county, nursing homes and
schools signaled that they could no
longer serve as polling places for the
March 17 primary. After county su-
pervisors closed 78 polling places, the
county recorder, Adrian Fontes, an-
nounced that he would order ballots
mailed to all voters who normally cast
them at the polls. It wasn’t a radical
notion, as voting by mail is common
in Arizona. Unfortunately, the state’s
Republican attorney general, Mark
Brnovich, objected and got a local
judge to block the move. Brnovich
accused Fontes of “creating chaos in
our elections during an already diffi-
cult time.”
Wrong. Fontes was doing the right
thing by attempting to expand the
options for voting in a regularly sched-
uled election taking place during a
public health crisis. And he was seek-
ing to ensure that the election would
be more than just an exercise in bu-
reaucratic responsibility—that the
county would take the necessary steps
to ensure the highest possible turnout.
Fontes didn’t let up. He appeared
on radio and television and all over so-
cial media, urging voters to cast absen-
tee ballots and “making sure that every
Maricopa County voter has plenty of
opportunity to vote and plenty of op-
tions to make that happen,” he says.
Congress can help officials like
Fontes by encouraging all states to
develop plans for maintaining democ-
racy in times of crisis, extending vote-
by-mail strategies, and funding them.
As the ACLU’s Ho says, “We really
need to make advance plans now for
the possibility that we will have to hold
the 2020 election with more voting
by mail than at any time in American
history.” JOHN NICHOLS(continued from page 4)COMIX NATION
JOEY PERR