Ron Wyden, a champion of mail ballots since his initial election to a vacant U.S. Senate seat in early 1996, is defending their use against attacks from 2020 election deniers.
Oregon was the first to use mail ballots in all statewide elections back in 2000, following two decades of experimenting and fine-tuning the system. The total is up to eight states, plus Washington, D.C., for the Nov. 8 election — and many more used them in 2020 as an emergency measure during the coronavirus pandemic. (Virtually all are in the West, including all neighboring states except Idaho.)
Wyden, who is up for election Nov. 8 to a fifth full term, is the sponsor of federal legislation to promote their use nationally.
“Vote by mail has delivered democracy directly in Oregon for more than a quarter century,” he said at an event Tuesday next to an official drop box in north Portland.
“We are gathered in north Portland to deliver a message directly to all of this election-denying movement or anybody else who would attack our proven system. Look at the facts — and hands off.”
Some election deniers — who say falsely that Donald Trump won the presidency in 2020 — have called on states to return to rigid restrictions on what used to be absentee ballots. Wyden said that of 552 Republicans nominated for Congress, governor, secretary of state and attorney general, 201 are full election deniers and 62 are doubters.
In addition to ending long lines and polling places, Wyden said, mail voting is easier for older people and people with disabilities — and it eases voting for people who are juggling commitments.
“For people of color, they deserve a trusted voting system after a long American history of cruel schemes denying them the right to vote,” he said.
Among the others Wyden invited were two Black leaders, state Rep. Travis Nelson of north Portland and Nkenge Harmon Johnson, chief executive of the Urban League of Portland. Also present was Phil Keisling, who was Oregon secretary of state in 1998 when voters approved the use of mail ballots. “I am proud to live in a state where I do not have to vote under duress, the way my parents and grandparents did,” Nelson said. Nelson’s grandparents were sharecroppers in Louisiana, and his parents lived under Jim Crow laws. “I am endlessly astonished and troubled by reports around this state and country of elections officials threatening this proven system that is such a big tool for democracy,” he said.
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