End Citizens United (ECU) and Let America Vote (LAV) Action Fund President Tiffany Muller, Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), and Let America Vote Founder Jason Kander, who is a veteran and former Missouri Secretary of State, hosted a press call today on protecting veterans’ right to safely vote during the coronavirus pandemic. Senator Klobuchar is the Ranking Member of the Senate Rules Committee with oversight jurisdiction over federal elections and has introduced legislation co-sponsored by Senator Duckworth––the Natural Disaster and Emergency Ballot Act––that would expand early vote and vote-by-mail options.
“It is just simply unacceptable that people that served our country should now be forced to risk their health to exercise their right to vote,” said Senator Klobuchar. “The more people we get to vote by mail, the less people we’ll have congregating at the polls. If it is good enough for Donald Trump it should be good enough for our nation’s veterans.”
“As we approach November, it’s our responsibility as a nation to ensure that everyone who is eligible to vote can do so in a way that’s secure, accessible and—importantly—safe,” Senator Duckworth, who is also a veteran, said. “One of the best ways to do that is by expanding early voting opportunities and vote-by-mail programs across the country, which would also help make voting more accessible for a large part of the disability community, which 1 in 6 American voters—including disabled Veterans—belong to. I’ll keep working with my friends Senator Klobuchar and Jason Kander and organizations like End Citizens United on this important issue.
“Many of our nation’s veterans are older and more susceptible to the serious health risks posed by coronavirus,” said ECU and LAV President Tiffany Muller. “Others have disabilities and their ballot access must be protected as well. Our military has been voting by mail since the Civil War and instances of fraud have been non-existent. We have the ability to ensure every voter in the country has the option to vote-by-mail during this pandemic. Voters shouldn’t have to risk their lives to exercise their right to vote.”
“It was an incredible honor for me to be able to serve my country and participate in my democracy at the same time,” said LAV Founder Jason Kander. “A big part of the reason I signed up in the first place was to make sure people could do it regardless, whether they were serving overseas or not. The idea that we’re going to suddenly castigate the process of voting by mail and treat people who want to vote as if they have some sort of suspicious motive, frankly, runs counter to everything that motivated people like myself and Senator Duckworth to sign up in the first place and it’s pretty un-American.”
Veterans have put their lives on the line for their country and their right to vote must be protected. Many of America’s veterans are older and more susceptible to the serious health effects of the virus. Veterans with disabilities must have an accessible way to vote, too. Most veterans who voted during active duty did so by mail, as do most members of the military today. In order to have a safe, accessible, and fair election, we must do all we can to ensure America’s veterans can cast their votes safely during the pandemic.
LAV and ECU recently launched the Safe, Accessible, Fair Elections (SAFE) Democracy Program to ensure that all Americans can cast their votes in the midst of the coronavirus outbreak without putting their health at risk. The 50-state grassroots effort will call on Congress to provide more election preparedness funding, implement a no-excuse vote-by-mail option by the November general election, and add additional safeguards to guarantee safe and sanitary in-person voting. It will also call on top election officials in states that do not already provide no excuse absentee vote by mail options to provide such options.
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