ESPC’s mission includes Fair Elections. And we’re committed to ensuring fair elections in the age of COVID-19. So we’ve been working on this issue alongside national groups like Secure Democracy, Unite America, Vote at Home, and the Brennan Center for Justice.
Readers of this site know that we posted our letter to Secretary of State Buchanan encouraging him to make remote voting accessible to as many Wyomingites as possible–at the same time encouraging an increase in the number of in-person voting sites.
Nick Reynolds took up the issue in his recent piece–As debate over vote by mail swells nationwide, Wyoming may have found its compromise–and discussed the issue with ESPC’s executive director, Chris Merrill.
The divide between the two parties is a surprising one, said the Equality State Policy Center’s Chris Merrill, particularly in the midst of a global pandemic that impacts voters of all stripes.
“As a nonpartisan individual, I find it astonishing that this issue is somehow making its way into partisan politics,” he said. “Helping people who want to vote to vote, especially in the midst of a pandemic — a time when you’re trying to protect public health and you’re trying to protect your county election officials, your county employees — you want to give them an option to vote without putting themselves and others at risk.”