Amy Klobuchar Wants to Save the Election From The Coronavirus

By Yoonj Kim 


without known end date, there’s a chance that coronavirus-related physical distancing measures could affect the November general election — and since millenials and Gen Z constitute the largest voting bloc in 2020, young people’s voting rights are among the most at risk.


That’s why Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Ron Wyden (D-OR) are sponsoring the Natural Mess and Emergency Ballot Act to set up federal vote-by-mail, which would let every voter to cast a ballot safely from house without having to go via laborious method of requesting an absentee ballot, as is required in several states (if they allocate absentee ballots at all).


This is beneficial news for several voters, and especially the young people who faced significant obstacles to vote even before COVID-19. Some states don’t accept student IDs as one of the forms of identification needed voter registration, as an example, which is often the only form of ID for several students. Throughout the Democratic primaries, hours-long lines at campus polling centers in states like Texas and Michigan also deterred students with jobs and restrictive class schedules from casting votes. Numerous campuses didn’t have a polling center at all, given that hundreds of on-campus sites have been shut off in recent years. Other students were denied absentee ballots nevertheless couldn’t travel to their residence states sort in attempt to vote. And across the nation, a matrix of complex and intentionally confusing voting regulations deter first-time and young voters from participating in the democratic process. A coronavirus quarantine is the last thing young voters should need to worry about.


Senator Klobuchar, who has a record of fighting for secure and available voting, talked with MTV News about how her new legislation would impact young people’s voting rights in light of the pandemic.


MTV News: What are the main things the National Mess and Emergency Ballot Act would do, especially pertaining to young voters?


Senator Amy Klobuchar: there really are usually efforts to prepare it hard for people to vote, and for the good of our democracy, we need to prepare it easier. And any time as soon as you have this situation where people have to pick between their health or voting, it makes no sense. That's why we hope to create it easier for people to vote and what this legislation would do is it makes it easier to vote by mail. And that's fantastic for each person — no matter how old you are. You won't have to go [to the polls] to vote and violate all these rules about not congregating together.


The second thing is we aspire to have the polls open early by maybe 20 days. And that's good for young voters because you could have classes, you may have something you're doing that day, and you also can't go on election day.


The third thing is actually training younger people to be poll workers because we're still going to have the polls open and we don't know where we're gonna be with this virus by November. Although we do know if it's still around, you don't want a lot of seniors working there. And by then I hope we have a test to show, “Are you immune? Have you built up immunities?” So then you aspire to train new poll workers and I can just imagine that a lot of young people would wish to fill in and do their patriotic duty there to help out the day of the polls like we've never seen before.


MTV News: do you suggest it might also increase youth turnout in November?


Klobuchar: I hope so, because I think we know there is a lot of reasons for young people to vote, things like climate change and gun safety. We've seen no advancement on these issues in the last few years and those are things that really matter to this generation.


My daughter is 24. She's sort of in her own little world now in New York City, like so several others staying house now. Nevertheless I visualize her and her companions and, you know, it's our whole world in front of these. And if other people aren't going to care about climate change or gun safety or student cash advances, then they've got to vote so that they ensure we have people in office who are going to stand up for them.


MTV News: The Senate recently passed the coronavirus stimulus package. How would that affect this bill, if at all?


Klobuchar: Well, there's some cash in it for early voting. It was hard to get my Republican colleagues to agree yet we got $400 million, which isn't nearly as much as a lot of the groups think we're gonna need. Remember, there really are 16 states that still have rules that aren't that wonderful where they require a bunch of reasons to even get an early ballot, so we need to change those rules. Along with, it's postage, things like that — we're gonna have to have with [the Ballot Act.]


there really are states like Colorado and Oregon that are ahead of their times and so they do almost all their voting this way, so there's no reason we couldn't change. Yet we know in just these eight months, not every state is going to change in that time. We've got to be realistic. However in case you could get more states and more voters have the ability to do it that way, it'll be safer for everyone.


MTV News: Who or what is the hugest hurdle to passing the bill?


Klobuchar: Well, there has been opposition. The president actually sort of went right after this — which, who is aware what that indicates? However for the most part, it's been bipartisan. The Republican Secretary of State, along with because the Democratic ones for each state, they want funding. They hope to change. They hope to do this. And there's not really a choice.


You saw governors having to postpone primary elections at the last minute. Imagine if that happened with the real election in November and we couldn't have it. That can't happen. And you visualize why we're planning ahead like this. We can't have individuals — even if it's for a good reason — just mention, “Oh, we're not going to have an election tomorrow.” That's the reason to plan ahead.


MTV News: What are the risks if this doesn't pass, especially pertaining to youth voter rights?  


Klobuchar: We want people to vote. So the risks are that people wouldn't vote because they're afraid of getting the coronavirus or something. We hope this thing will be under control by then, nevertheless we know, based on the projections, we can’t be sure.


And by the way, we should be changing our systems anyway. There’s all kinds of good security reasons as well to do also it just makes it easier in the modern world to vote. You add early voting to that and same-day registration — we should just make voting something that each person does alternatively opposed to something that's an enormous hassle to do.


MTV News: And speaking of security, some detractors believe that a national vote-by-mail system might increase voter fraud, which statistically we know isn't true. Yet are there any provisions for that?


Klobuchar: Well, I love that you know your data. Yes, I mean, we've made it very clear what the cash can be used for. It can't be used for things that are not secure. That's essential. And we also aspire to have backup paper ballots. That's something I have been pushing for for years right now. A Republican with me — James Lankford, who's more conservative and from Oklahoma — we have a bill that would require states, if they get any federal cash, to have backup paper ballots and do auditing. We still have a dozen states, including the full state of New Jersey, that don't have backup paper ballots. So there's no way they know there's hacking. And in the event you think the Russians don't know what those states are — oh, they know. You can have a whole election question in case you don't have the backup, so we've been pushing the states to do that.


One of the beauties of the mail-in ballots is it's certainly a paper ballot. They have to mail it. So it makes it easier to check things. Plus, you want the backups for the polling locations. Case in point, our whole democracy was founded on this idea that we didn't aspire to be bossed around by another nation. Back then, it was England — we wanted the correct to prepare our own decisions. This idea that we would even imagine not protecting ourselves from foreign interference in a democracy makes no sense at all.


MTV News: Would this bill cover just this current pandemic period?


Klobuchar: It is for this period now — the cash could be. Although in case you change systems so you would alter how each state is spending their cash anyway, it would help them get it up and going in a much bigger way than they have now.


MTV News: Well, thank you so much for your time. Senator, I know this is a very intense and busy week for all of us, including yourself with your partner in the hospital. 


Klobuchar: My husband's doing a little bit better. You know, he got the coronavirus, so he's been in the hospital. Although we just keep working here. I think a lot of folks are going to go by way of the same thing. You can't even visit family member members.


My daughter played a digital game night with her boyfriend's family member last night, so I think folks are just going to have to adapt and find ways to do this.


MTV News: do you think which digital games she played? 


Klobuchar: I don't know. She's going to be upset I even brought this up.