motherjones--2020-06-08--Tear Gas Is Way More Dangerous Than Police Let On—Especially During the Coronavirus Pandemic

This story was published in partnership with ProPublica , a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power .
Sign up for The Big Story newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox .
When Amira Chowdhury joined a protest in Philadelphia against police violence on Monday , she wore a mask to protect herself and others against the coronavirus .
But when officers launched tear gas into the crowd , Chowdhury pulled off her mask as she gasped for air .
“ I couldn ’ t breathe , ” she said .
“ I felt like I was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a part of the Vine Street Expressway that ran underground .
Everyone panicked as gas drifted into the dark , semi-enclosed space , she said .
People stomped over her as they scrambled away .
Bruised , she scaled a fence to escape .
But the tear gas found her later that evening , inside her own house ; as police unleashed it on protesters in her predominantly black neighborhood in West Philadelphia , it seeped in .
“ I can ’ t even be in my own house without escaping the violence @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , a rising senior at the University of Pennsylvania .
On Wednesday , she said her throat still felt dry , like it was clogged with ash .
The Philadelphia protest was one of many instances in recent days in which police launched tear gas—a toxic substance that can cause lung damage—into crowds .
In a statement , Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw said that officers had no choice but to release it after protesters threw rocks at them and refused to disperse , and that officers also used nonchemical white smoke to minimize @ @ @ @ @ @ @ maintaining a deterrent visual effect.
” She called it “ a means to safely diffuse a volatile and dangerous situation.
” But tear gas is not safe , according to a number of experts interviewed by ProPublica .
It has been found to cause long-term health consequences and can hurt those who aren ’ t the intended targets , including people inside their homes .
This would be enough of a problem in normal times , but now , experts say , the widespread , sometimes indiscriminate use of tear gas on American @ @ @ @ @ @ @ pandemic threatens to worsen the coronavirus , along with racial disparities in its spread and who dies from it .
“ As an immunologist , it scares me , ” said Dr. Purvi Parikh , an allergy and immunology doctor at NYU Langone Health .
“ We just got through a brutal two months , and I ’ m really scared this will bring a second wave [ of COVID-19 ] sooner.
” It puts black communities in an impossible situation , said Dr. Joseph Nwadiuko , an internist and researcher at the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Thirteen of the 15 coronavirus patients in the intensive care unit where he works are black , he said .
“ I worry that one of the compounding effects of structural racism is you ’ ll see a second wave of black patients , including those who were out there defending their lives.
” On Tuesday , an open letter signed by nearly 1,300 medical and public health professionals urged the police to stop using “ tear gas , smoke , or other respiratory irritants , which could increase risk for COVID-19 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to infection , exacerbating existing inflammation , and inducing coughing.
” Here ’ s what you need to know about tear gas and how it ’ s being used by law enforcement in recent days .
Tear gas can cause long-term harm , by making people more susceptible to contracting influenza , pneumonia and other illnesses .
Tear gas is the generic term for a class of compounds that cause a burning sensation .
Most law enforcement agencies in the U.S. , including the Philadelphia Police Department this week , use a chemical @ @ @ @ @ @ @ CS activates a specific pain receptor , one that ’ s also triggered by eating wasabi , said Sven-Eric Jordt , a professor of anesthesiology at Duke University .
But CS is much more powerful , up to 100,000 times stronger than the sting from wasabi , he said .
“ They are really pain nerve gases .
They are designed to induce pain.
” CS is particularly painful when it gets on your skin or in your eyes .
( Doctors have advised protesters not to wear contact lenses . )
When @ @ @ @ @ @ @ cough .
The compound degrades the mucus membranes in your eyes , nose , mouth and lungs—the layers of cells that help protect people from viruses and bacteria .
Scientists know little about how CS affects the general public .
The most comprehensive studies were conducted by the U.S. military on thousands of recruits who were exposed to tear gas during training exercises .
Afterward , it left them at higher risk for contracting influenza , pneumonia , bronchitis and other respiratory illnesses .
The soldiers were generally healthier than the average person @ @ @ @ @ @ @ or heart disease .
Studies of civilians in Turkey found that people who are repeatedly exposed to tear gas are more likely to have chronic bronchitis or chest pains and coughing that can last for weeks .
It may also be linked to miscarriages .
The effects worsen as people are repeatedly exposed to higher doses , Jordt said , but it ’ s hard to measure the concentrations of tear gas during chaotic protests , and many who are affected will be reluctant or afraid to seek medical help .
Parikh , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ worried about children at the protests .
Their lungs and immune system are still developing , and tear gas could lead to neurological problems or permanent skin or eye damage if it ’ s not washed off quickly .
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention , severe tear gas poisoning , particularly if the gas was released in an enclosed space—can blind or kill people through chemical burns and respiratory failure .
Prisoners with respiratory conditions have died after inhaling tear gas in poorly ventilated areas .
On Wednesday , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in Brooklyn died after guards sprayed him with pepper spray , another kind of tear gas that causes similar health effects as CS .
In a statement , the U.S. Department of Justice ’ s Bureau of Prisons said the inmate , Jamel Floyd , was caught “ breaking the cell door window with a metal object ” and “ became increasingly disruptive and potentially harmful to himself and others.
” Medical staff “ immediately responded to assess the inmate , found Mr. Floyd to be unresponsive , and instantly initiated life-saving measures.
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ gas can increase the spread of the coronavirus and might make some people more vulnerable to catching it .
It ’ s too early to know exactly how tear gas affects coronavirus patients .
But Parikh said they both cause lung inflammation .
“ Anything that ’ s an irritant can cause that same inflammatory response , ” she said .
“ Your lungs can fill with mucus and it can be very difficult to breathe .
The muscles narrow ; it ’ s almost like breathing through a straw.
” People with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ higher baseline inflammation that makes them more susceptible to catching infections like the flu or the common cold , Parikh said , so tear gas could trigger an asthma attack or weaken the body ’ s ability to stave off COVID-19 .
“ If your lungs are already wheezing and coughing , working hard to expel this tear gas or this irritant , it ’ s unable to have that reserve to fight off any infection , whether a virus or bacteria , ” she said .
Talia Smith , a graduate student @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it only took a whiff of tear gas to trigger an asthma attack when she was protesting in Omaha last Friday .
She could barely feel it in her eyes , but her throat “ just immediately started closing , ” she said .
Smith had brought her inhaler , but the medication inside was running low .
She ’ d only had one asthma attack in her life before this .
Smith had a burning feeling in her chest for days afterward , and she went to get tested for the coronavirus @ @ @ @ @ @ @ worries that if she catches the virus while still feeling the effects of the gas , she ’ d be fighting off the disease while her lungs aren ’ t at full capacity .
Parikh said there ’ s not enough data on asthma and the coronavirus in general .
While asthmatics are at higher risk for all respiratory infections , asthma isn ’ t among the top chronic conditions for the most severe coronavirus patients .
“ We are still seeing many asthmatics get it , ” so it ’ s too @ @ @ @ @ @ @ risk at all , she said .
Tear gas weakens the demonstrators ’ protections against the coronavirus , said Dr. Abraar Karan , a physician at Harvard Medical School who ’ s working on the coronavirus response .
Infections increase when people cough or talk loudly , he said , and even if someone is wearing a mask , when they ’ re hit with tear gas , they ’ ll take off the mask as they ’ re coughing .
“ Not only are you vigorously coughing , you ’ re vigorously @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in.
” Panic can cause a stampede , forcing people into close proximity as they ’ re expelling large droplets from their mouths , he said , perfectly describing the situation that Chowdhury experienced on Monday .
Karan said he ’ s worried that protests could turn into superspreading events , yet he also understands why people feel they must be there .
“ At the same time , I ’ m worried about my patients who ’ ve been destroyed by systemic racism .
So racism is killing them as much as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ at least another week before researchers can study whether the protests led to outbreaks .
Even then , it will be hard to tell whether the infections were caused solely by the large gatherings or whether tear gas contributed to the increase .
Protesters aren ’ t the only people at risk .
Tear gas is entering homes and businesses .
Jordt said he was surprised by the sheer quantity of tear gas used by police in recent days , based on what he ’ s seen in online videos and news clips @ @ @ @ @ @ @ most extreme situations , “ it ’ s more like fumigating and flushing people out , ” he said .
“ Tear gas has become a 1st line response , not a last resort , ” he added in an email .
Because many protests are occurring in residential neighborhoods , tear gas is now seeping into homes .
Parikh compared it to secondhand smoke .
“ It ’ s a terrible situation , ” she said .
“ To be honest there ’ s not much you can do.
” Chowdhury , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Philadelphia protest , said she couldn ’ t keep out the gas , even when she stuffed T-shirts and towels under the doors and windows .
She could still smell it the next morning .
If the gas gets indoors , people should wipe down their countertops and other surfaces with large amounts of water and soap , Jordt said .
Any food that wasn ’ t in a closed container could be contaminated and should be thrown out , and in extreme cases with large amounts of tear gas , residents and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ departments for recommendations of professional cleaning services , he added .
Companies like Aftermath offer services for biohazard and infection control .
Its website ’ s section on “ tear gas removal ” says the chemical “ leaves behind residue that can present serious health hazards if not properly treated .
… Tear gas residue can seep into porous materials like furniture , mattresses , clothing , carpet and even hardwood floors , and continue to irritate the mucous membranes of anyone residing in or visiting the property long after the incident.
” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ gas and many ways to use it , said Anna Feigenbaum , the author of a recent book on the history of tear gas and an associate professor of communication and digital media at Bournemouth University in England .
Police can spray it from cans , shoot canisters or throw grenades .
Manufacturers sell grenades that produce light and noise as they expel tear gas and “ triple-chaser ” canisters that break into multiple pieces when they land so the gas can cover a larger area .
The technology for deploying tear gas @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ understanding of the impacts , Jordt said .
“ While use of these [ compounds ] is escalating , there is a vacuum of research to back up the safety of high-level use.
” Feigenbaum said the current situation is dangerous because law enforcement has used tear gas “ at close range , in enclosed spaces , in large quantities , fired directly at people , used [ it ] offensively as a weapon and in conjunction with rubber-coated bullets as a force multiplier.
” Last weekend , a college student in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ gas canister hit his face .
Tear gas is banned in international warfare , but it is classified as a “ riot control agent ” that law enforcement can use for crowd control .
Yet instead of calming the situation , tear gas can sometimes “ cause counter aggression , ” Jordt said .
“ It just doesn ’ t work well , and it hits the weakest people the most , and causes the most complications in them.
” One of the most controversial events occurred on Monday , when law enforcement @ @ @ @ @ @ @ gas on peaceful demonstrators to clear the way so President Donald Trump could walk to a nearby church for a photo op .
A statement from the U.S. Park Police said they used “ pepper balls ” with an unspecified irritant powder and “ smoke canisters.
” ( A reporter with WUSA9 tweeted photos on Thursday of CS containers that he and his team said they found at the site . )
The CDC uses “ tear gas ” as the catch-all term for many “ riot control ” compounds with similar effects @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the river in Alexandria , Virginia , said she could see the smoke from her house , like something from a “ dystopian reality.
” A University of Delaware professor who specializes in disaster management , Sanders said she ’ d thought about attending that protest but decided against it because her lungs were still weak from an earlier infection that might have been the coronavirus .
Although she never got tested , Sanders said she came down with a respiratory illness in mid-February that almost sent her to the emergency room .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ of asthma .
Last October , she swam a 5K race .
Today , she can ’ t even swim a mile .
She said , “ There are other ways to do crowd control that don ’ t involve creating respiratory ailments during a pandemic , in a city that doesn ’ t have enough [ medical ] supplies .
”

This story was published in partnership with ProPublica, a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up for The Big Story newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox.
When Amira Chowdhury joined a protest in Philadelphia against police violence on Monday, she wore a mask to protect herself and others against the coronavirus. But when officers launched tear gas into the crowd, Chowdhury pulled off her mask as she gasped for air. “I couldn’t breathe,” she said. “I felt like I was choking to death.”
Chowdhury was on a part of the Vine Street Expressway that ran underground. Everyone panicked as gas drifted into the dark, semi-enclosed space, she said. People stomped over her as they scrambled away. Bruised, she scaled a fence to escape. But the tear gas found her later that evening, inside her own house; as police unleashed it on protesters in her predominantly black neighborhood in West Philadelphia, it seeped in.
“I can’t even be in my own house without escaping the violence of the state,” said Chowdhury, a rising senior at the University of Pennsylvania. On Wednesday, she said her throat still felt dry, like it was clogged with ash.
The Philadelphia protest was one of many instances in recent days in which police launched tear gas—a toxic substance that can cause lung damage—into crowds. In a statement, Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw said that officers had no choice but to release it after protesters threw rocks at them and refused to disperse, and that officers also used nonchemical white smoke to minimize the amount of the irritant “while maintaining a deterrent visual effect.” She called it “a means to safely diffuse a volatile and dangerous situation.”
But tear gas is not safe, according to a number of experts interviewed by ProPublica. It has been found to cause long-term health consequences and can hurt those who aren’t the intended targets, including people inside their homes.
This would be enough of a problem in normal times, but now, experts say, the widespread, sometimes indiscriminate use of tear gas on American civilians in the midst of a respiratory pandemic threatens to worsen the coronavirus, along with racial disparities in its spread and who dies from it.
“As an immunologist, it scares me,” said Dr. Purvi Parikh, an allergy and immunology doctor at NYU Langone Health. “We just got through a brutal two months, and I’m really scared this will bring a second wave [of COVID-19] sooner.”
It puts black communities in an impossible situation, said Dr. Joseph Nwadiuko, an internist and researcher at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine. Thirteen of the 15 coronavirus patients in the intensive care unit where he works are black, he said. “I worry that one of the compounding effects of structural racism is you’ll see a second wave of black patients, including those who were out there defending their lives.”
On Tuesday, an open letter signed by nearly 1,300 medical and public health professionals urged the police to stop using “tear gas, smoke, or other respiratory irritants, which could increase risk for COVID-19 by making the respiratory tract more susceptible to infection, exacerbating existing inflammation, and inducing coughing.”
Here’s what you need to know about tear gas and how it’s being used by law enforcement in recent days.
Tear gas can cause long-term harm, by making people more susceptible to contracting influenza, pneumonia and other illnesses.
Tear gas is the generic term for a class of compounds that cause a burning sensation. Most law enforcement agencies in the U.S., including the Philadelphia Police Department this week, use a chemical called CS, short for 2-chlorobenzalmalononitrile.
CS activates a specific pain receptor, one that’s also triggered by eating wasabi, said Sven-Eric Jordt, a professor of anesthesiology at Duke University. But CS is much more powerful, up to 100,000 times stronger than the sting from wasabi, he said.
“They are really pain nerve gases. They are designed to induce pain.”
CS is particularly painful when it gets on your skin or in your eyes. (Doctors have advised protesters not to wear contact lenses.) When inhaled, the pain induces people to cough. The compound degrades the mucus membranes in your eyes, nose, mouth and lungs—the layers of cells that help protect people from viruses and bacteria.
Scientists know little about how CS affects the general public. The most comprehensive studies were conducted by the U.S. military on thousands of recruits who were exposed to tear gas during training exercises. Afterward, it left them at higher risk for contracting influenza, pneumonia, bronchitis and other respiratory illnesses.
The soldiers were generally healthier than the average person, with fewer underlying conditions like asthma or heart disease. Studies of civilians in Turkey found that people who are repeatedly exposed to tear gas are more likely to have chronic bronchitis or chest pains and coughing that can last for weeks. It may also be linked to miscarriages.
The effects worsen as people are repeatedly exposed to higher doses, Jordt said, but it’s hard to measure the concentrations of tear gas during chaotic protests, and many who are affected will be reluctant or afraid to seek medical help.
Parikh, the Langone Health doctor, is particularly worried about children at the protests. Their lungs and immune system are still developing, and tear gas could lead to neurological problems or permanent skin or eye damage if it’s not washed off quickly.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, severe tear gas poisoning, particularly if the gas was released in an enclosed space—can blind or kill people through chemical burns and respiratory failure. Prisoners with respiratory conditions have died after inhaling tear gas in poorly ventilated areas. On Wednesday, an inmate at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn died after guards sprayed him with pepper spray, another kind of tear gas that causes similar health effects as CS.
In a statement, the U.S. Department of Justice’s Bureau of Prisons said the inmate, Jamel Floyd, was caught “breaking the cell door window with a metal object” and “became increasingly disruptive and potentially harmful to himself and others.” Medical staff “immediately responded to assess the inmate, found Mr. Floyd to be unresponsive, and instantly initiated life-saving measures.” An investigation is underway.
Tear gas can increase the spread of the coronavirus and might make some people more vulnerable to catching it.
It’s too early to know exactly how tear gas affects coronavirus patients. But Parikh said they both cause lung inflammation. “Anything that’s an irritant can cause that same inflammatory response,” she said. “Your lungs can fill with mucus and it can be very difficult to breathe. The muscles narrow; it’s almost like breathing through a straw.”
People with asthma and other respiratory illnesses already have higher baseline inflammation that makes them more susceptible to catching infections like the flu or the common cold, Parikh said, so tear gas could trigger an asthma attack or weaken the body’s ability to stave off COVID-19.
“If your lungs are already wheezing and coughing, working hard to expel this tear gas or this irritant, it’s unable to have that reserve to fight off any infection, whether a virus or bacteria,” she said.
Talia Smith, a graduate student at the University of Nebraska, said it only took a whiff of tear gas to trigger an asthma attack when she was protesting in Omaha last Friday. She could barely feel it in her eyes, but her throat “just immediately started closing,” she said. Smith had brought her inhaler, but the medication inside was running low. She’d only had one asthma attack in her life before this. Smith had a burning feeling in her chest for days afterward, and she went to get tested for the coronavirus; the results are pending. She worries that if she catches the virus while still feeling the effects of the gas, she’d be fighting off the disease while her lungs aren’t at full capacity.
Parikh said there’s not enough data on asthma and the coronavirus in general. While asthmatics are at higher risk for all respiratory infections, asthma isn’t among the top chronic conditions for the most severe coronavirus patients. “We are still seeing many asthmatics get it,” so it’s too soon to say there’s no risk at all, she said.
Tear gas weakens the demonstrators’ protections against the coronavirus, said Dr. Abraar Karan, a physician at Harvard Medical School who’s working on the coronavirus response. Infections increase when people cough or talk loudly, he said, and even if someone is wearing a mask, when they’re hit with tear gas, they’ll take off the mask as they’re coughing. “Not only are you vigorously coughing, you’re vigorously inhaling to try and get more air in.” Panic can cause a stampede, forcing people into close proximity as they’re expelling large droplets from their mouths, he said, perfectly describing the situation that Chowdhury experienced on Monday.
Karan said he’s worried that protests could turn into superspreading events, yet he also understands why people feel they must be there. “At the same time, I’m worried about my patients who’ve been destroyed by systemic racism. So racism is killing them as much as a pandemic is.”
It will take at least another week before researchers can study whether the protests led to outbreaks. Even then, it will be hard to tell whether the infections were caused solely by the large gatherings or whether tear gas contributed to the increase.
Protesters aren’t the only people at risk. Tear gas is entering homes and businesses.
Jordt said he was surprised by the sheer quantity of tear gas used by police in recent days, based on what he’s seen in online videos and news clips. Instead of reserving it for the most extreme situations, “it’s more like fumigating and flushing people out,” he said. “Tear gas has become a 1st line response, not a last resort,” he added in an email.
Because many protests are occurring in residential neighborhoods, tear gas is now seeping into homes. Parikh compared it to secondhand smoke. “It’s a terrible situation,” she said. “To be honest there’s not much you can do.”
Chowdhury, the UPenn student who participated in the Philadelphia protest, said she couldn’t keep out the gas, even when she stuffed T-shirts and towels under the doors and windows. She could still smell it the next morning.
If the gas gets indoors, people should wipe down their countertops and other surfaces with large amounts of water and soap, Jordt said. Any food that wasn’t in a closed container could be contaminated and should be thrown out, and in extreme cases with large amounts of tear gas, residents and business owners may need to contact fire departments for recommendations of professional cleaning services, he added.
Companies like Aftermath offer services for biohazard and infection control. Its website’s section on “tear gas removal” says the chemical “leaves behind residue that can present serious health hazards if not properly treated. … Tear gas residue can seep into porous materials like furniture, mattresses, clothing, carpet and even hardwood floors, and continue to irritate the mucous membranes of anyone residing in or visiting the property long after the incident.”
Police tactics and tools can make matters worse.
There are many different forms of tear gas and many ways to use it, said Anna Feigenbaum, the author of a recent book on the history of tear gas and an associate professor of communication and digital media at Bournemouth University in England.
Police can spray it from cans, shoot canisters or throw grenades. Manufacturers sell grenades that produce light and noise as they expel tear gas and “triple-chaser” canisters that break into multiple pieces when they land so the gas can cover a larger area.
The technology for deploying tear gas is advancing far more quickly than scientists’ understanding of the impacts, Jordt said. “While use of these [compounds] is escalating, there is a vacuum of research to back up the safety of high-level use.”
Feigenbaum said the current situation is dangerous because law enforcement has used tear gas “at close range, in enclosed spaces, in large quantities, fired directly at people, used [it] offensively as a weapon and in conjunction with rubber-coated bullets as a force multiplier.”
Last weekend, a college student in Indiana lost his eye when a tear gas canister hit his face.
Tear gas is banned in international warfare, but it is classified as a “riot control agent” that law enforcement can use for crowd control. Yet instead of calming the situation, tear gas can sometimes “cause counter aggression,” Jordt said. “It just doesn’t work well, and it hits the weakest people the most, and causes the most complications in them.”
One of the most controversial events occurred on Monday, when law enforcement in Washington, D.C., used tear gas on peaceful demonstrators to clear the way so President Donald Trump could walk to a nearby church for a photo op. A statement from the U.S. Park Police said they used “pepper balls” with an unspecified irritant powder and “smoke canisters.” (A reporter with WUSA9 tweeted photos on Thursday of CS containers that he and his team said they found at the site.) The CDC uses “tear gas” as the catch-all term for many “riot control” compounds with similar effects.
Monica Sanders, who lives across the river in Alexandria, Virginia, said she could see the smoke from her house, like something from a “dystopian reality.”
A University of Delaware professor who specializes in disaster management, Sanders said she’d thought about attending that protest but decided against it because her lungs were still weak from an earlier infection that might have been the coronavirus. Although she never got tested, Sanders said she came down with a respiratory illness in mid-February that almost sent her to the emergency room. She is a triathlete with no history of asthma. Last October, she swam a 5K race. Today, she can’t even swim a mile.
She said, “There are other ways to do crowd control that don’t involve creating respiratory ailments during a pandemic, in a city that doesn’t have enough [medical] supplies.”
Maya Eliahou and Caroline Chen contributed reporting.


motherjones--2020-06-08--The White House Says Trump Was Offended by Romney’s 47-Percent Remark. That’s a Lie.

Mitt Romney appears to have gotten under Donald Trump ’ s skin—and , as so often happens , the Trump White House is reacting by lying , this time about Romney ’ s most infamous quote .
On Sunday , Romney , the GOP ’ s 2012 presidential nominee who is now a senator from Utah , joined a Black Lives Matter protest in Washington , DC .
A video of him trekking along with other demonstrators has drawn more than 10 million views .
Naturally , the next day , White House mouthpiece Kayleigh McEnany was asked about Romney @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Trump agreed with Romney ’ s support of “ the core message of Black Lives Matter.
” She was well prepped for the question and quickly pounced .
President Trump , she said , “ won 8 percent of the black vote ; Mitt Romney won 2 percent of the black vote.
” And she pivoted to Romney ’ s 47-percent quote , a story broken by Mother Jones in 2012 .
She declared that “ Mitt Romney has a lot of words , ” and , reading from her notes , she @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 47 percent of Americans are “ dependent upon government , believe they are victims , believe the government has a responsibility to care for them.
” She continued , “ The president takes great offense to those words.
” But that was false .
Trump did not take offense .
And he has even endorsed the message that half of Americans are ne ’ er-do-well free-riders .
During the 47-percent controversy , Trump adopted a clear stand : Romney had said nothing wrong .
In an interview with CNN , Trump defended Romney @ @ @ @ @ @ @ deserved debate .
“ I don ’ t think he should be apologizing , ” Trump said , adding that “ it ’ s a point of view , and it ’ s probably something that they have to have out.
” He also criticized the media for making “ a big deal out of it.
” Trump tweeted the same , telling Romney to “ stay on offense ” and not apologize .
So Trump was not upset by Romney ’ s comment .
Fast forward three years : Trump , now @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Romney torch .
During a 2015 interview on Fox News , Sean Hannity asked Trump if he could lift low-income Americans out of poverty .
Of course , he could , Trump replied .
He then remarked : In a briefer and more direct fashion , Trump had reiterated what Romney said .
He even added three more percentage points .
Half of Americans , according to Trump , were freeloaders who expected to be carried by the other half .
Trump ’ s comment at the time did not cause a fuss @ @ @ @ @ @ @ gazillions of outrageous and false statements he was tossing out on the campaign trail .
But it was fully in sync with the conservative talking point ( expressed by Romney in 2012 ) that the world is divided into makers and takers and that many Americans are social parasites .
It ’ s no shocker , but McEnany , who not long ago promised never to lie to the media and the public , lied about all this .
Trump was not offended by Romney ’ s 47-percent comment .
He advised Romney @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
( Romney , whose campaign book was titled No Apology , did apologize . )
And Trump even expressed the same haughty and elitist view of the American people .
The only difference is that his estimate of number of Americans he considered irresponsible free-riders was higher .

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Mitt Romney appears to have gotten under Donald Trump’s skin—and, as so often happens, the Trump White House is reacting by lying, this time about Romney’s most infamous quote.
On Sunday, Romney, the GOP’s 2012 presidential nominee who is now a senator from Utah, joined a Black Lives Matter protest in Washington, DC. A video of him trekking along with other demonstrators has drawn more than 10 million views.
.@MittRomney is marching with a group of nearly 1,000 Christians to the White House. Here he is on video saying why he’s walking: “… to make sure that people understand that Black Lives Matter” https://t.co/KCxJNchCMs pic.twitter.com/Za0Am2WL8g — Hannah Natanson (@hannah_natanson) June 7, 2020
Naturally, the next day, White House mouthpiece Kayleigh McEnany was asked about Romney’s moment of resistance and whether Trump agreed with Romney’s support of “the core message of Black Lives Matter.” She was well prepped for the question and quickly pounced. President Trump, she said, “won 8 percent of the black vote; Mitt Romney won 2 percent of the black vote.” And she pivoted to Romney’s 47-percent quote, a story broken by Mother Jones in 2012. She declared that “Mitt Romney has a lot of words,” and, reading from her notes, she reminded people that Romney had said that 47 percent of Americans are “dependent upon government, believe they are victims, believe the government has a responsibility to care for them.” She continued, “The president takes great offense to those words.”
But that was false. Trump did not take offense. And he has even endorsed the message that half of Americans are ne’er-do-well free-riders.
During the 47-percent controversy, Trump adopted a clear stand: Romney had said nothing wrong. In an interview with CNN, Trump defended Romney and said it was an issue that deserved debate. “I don’t think he should be apologizing,” Trump said, adding that “it’s a point of view, and it’s probably something that they have to have out.” He also criticized the media for making “a big deal out of it.”
Trump tweeted the same, telling Romney to “stay on offense” and not apologize.
With 49 days until the election, @MittRomney needs to stay on offense. He should not be apologizing. Deflect onto Obama's record. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 18, 2012
So Trump was not upset by Romney’s comment.
Fast forward three years: Trump, now a presidential candidate, picked up this Romney torch. During a 2015 interview on Fox News, Sean Hannity asked Trump if he could lift low-income Americans out of poverty. Of course, he could, Trump replied. He then remarked:
The problem we have right now—we have a society that sits back and says we don’t have to do anything. Eventually, the 50 percent cannot carry—and it’s unfair to them—but cannot carry the other 50 percent.
In a briefer and more direct fashion, Trump had reiterated what Romney said. He even added three more percentage points. Half of Americans, according to Trump, were freeloaders who expected to be carried by the other half. Trump’s comment at the time did not cause a fuss. It was just one of the gazillions of outrageous and false statements he was tossing out on the campaign trail. But it was fully in sync with the conservative talking point (expressed by Romney in 2012) that the world is divided into makers and takers and that many Americans are social parasites.
It’s no shocker, but McEnany, who not long ago promised never to lie to the media and the public, lied about all this. Trump was not offended by Romney’s 47-percent comment. He advised Romney to stand his ground and not apologize. (Romney, whose campaign book was titled No Apology, did apologize.) And Trump even expressed the same haughty and elitist view of the American people. The only difference is that his estimate of number of Americans he considered irresponsible free-riders was higher.


motherjones--2020-06-09--How the Coronavirus Handed the GOP New Ways to Squash the Vote

H. Drew Galloway , executive director of MOVE Texas , spends his life trying to register young voters .
Typically , in the spring of an election year , Galloway would be overseeing a staff of about four dozen who , before classes end for the summer , register newly eligible voters on 55 college campuses and at dozens of high schools .
Last year , MOVE Texas signed up more than 25,000 new voters .
It reached nearly 8,000 more this year before the state ’ s March 3 presidential primary .
But then the coronavirus outbreak scattered students @ @ @ @ @ @ @ other political group , suspended in-person registration drives .
“ We ’ ve gone from registering 2,000 people a week to registering maybe 100 , ” Galloway told me in April .
“ Voter registration is decimated in Texas.
” Even before the pandemic , Texas was a hard place to register .
As of May , it was one of 10 states with no way to do so online .
Anyone who wants to sign up voters must be deputized by each county they work in , every two years .
Texas @ @ @ @ @ @ @ eligible voters—more people than the individual populations of 28 other states .
The majority of them , according to the Texas Democratic Party , are young , people of color , or both , who would likely favor Democrats if they voted .
Luke Warford , who directs the party ’ s efforts to expand voting , told me that Texas Democrats had hoped to see 2 million new people register this year as part of its push to tip the state blue .
“ We had plans to run the largest statewide @ @ @ @ @ @ @ he said .
“ Introduce a pandemic and that makes everything you were planning to do in person quite a bit more difficult.
” Even if new voters succeed in registering , without changes to the existing system they ’ ll face unequal access to mail-in ballots .
Texas limits mail-in voting for those under 65 to people who are out of town during the election , in jail , or have a “ sickness or physical condition ” that prevents them from going to the polls .
Meanwhile , any voter 65 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Trump in 2016—can request an absentee ballot with no questions asked .
In April , a state judge ruled that people afraid of contracting the coronavirus while voting had a legitimate reason to get an absentee ballot .
Texas ’ Republican attorney general has opposed the ruling , claiming that “ a fear of contracting COVID-19 ” is “ an emotional condition and not a physical ” one , and has raised the prospect of “ criminal sanctions ” for groups like MOVE Texas that help voters under 65 obtain mail-in ballots .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ are examining the issue , the question could be decided by the state ’ s all-Republican Supreme Court .
What ’ s happened in Texas is happening nationwide : The coronavirus has heightened the already considerable obstacles blocking citizens from exercising their right to vote .
In the last decade , Republicans have enacted new voting restrictions in 25 states .
The Supreme Court has gutted the Voting Rights Act , unleashing new efforts in states with long histories of voting discrimination to make it harder for voters of color to cast ballots @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , who attempted to access election infrastructure in all 50 states in 2016 , and could try again .
“ What you ’ ve done with coronavirus , ” said Marc Elias , the leading Democratic voting rights lawyer , “ is you ’ ve added one more huge stressor to a system that was already at the breaking point.
” The risk of mass voter disenfranchisement is greater in 2020 than at any time since the era before the abolition of poll taxes and literacy tests in the 1960s .
Voter ID @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of Motor Vehicle offices are shuttered .
Purges are more harmful when removed voters can not easily reregister .
Limited polling places and five-hour waits are especially pernicious under the threat of viral infection .
And voter registration and traditional get-out-the-vote efforts have stalled .
“ Souls to the Polls ” drives led by Black churches have been put on hold .
States have delayed primaries and severely reduced or wholly eliminated in-person voting .
Few are prepared to handle a surge of mail-in ballots in November .
Democrats worry that COVID-19 could @ @ @ @ @ @ @ advantage , locking in an older and whiter electorate that stems the impact of demographic change .
“ Coronavirus has added this additional layer of voter suppression to everything .
The barriers that those laws put up are even higher now , ” said Galloway .
“ That ’ s directly going to affect communities of color , low-income communities , young people.
” The numbers are startling : In Kentucky , for example , where Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is up for reelection , just 504 people registered in March compared @ @ @ @ @ @ @ key states like Texas , Georgia , North Carolina , and Virginia , the number of new voters who registered in March was half or less than it was during the same time period in 2016 .
Public health and election experts agree that voting by mail is the safest way to cast a ballot in a pandemic .
Yet most states are unprepared to hold mail elections in a way that won ’ t lead to significant voter disenfranchisement .
The six best-positioned states—California , Colorado , Hawaii , Oregon , Utah @ @ @ @ @ @ @ systems where a ballot is sent to every registered voter .
In three other Western states—Arizona , Montana , and New Mexico—a majority of votes are cast by mail , according to data from the federal Election Assistance Commission .
With Florida and pockets of other mail-in voters added in , a quarter of Americans voted by mail in 2018 , a record number .
But in the 40 other states , mail-in ballots made up just 9 percent of votes cast .
Fewer than 8 percent of people voted by mail in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ North Carolina , Pennsylvania , and Wisconsin .
“ Because it ’ s been a minor method of voting in a lot of the key states , the rules and practices involving mail voting have gotten less scrutiny and haven ’ t been thought out to make sure they ’ re fair and accessible , ” said Wendy Weiser , director of the democracy program at the Brennan Center for Justice .
While quickly expanding voting by mail could help many people cast ballots in November , it poses its own risks .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ unused to the method , are overwhelmed by a surge of requests , ballots might not reach voters in time .
The United States Postal Service , which faces a major budget shortfall and attacks from the Trump administration ( a major fundraiser for the Republican National Convention was just named postmaster general ) , could lack the resources to handle increases in sent and returned ballots .
And a sizable chunk of the electorate will be unfamiliar with the intricate rules governing mail-in voting and could see their ballots thrown out on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ presents cautionary tales , both about how unrelated events could disrupt mail-in voting and how postal ballots can be invalidated .
About a week before the contest , Cesar Sayoc , a fervent Trump supporter , was arrested for mailing explosive devices to prominent Democrats including Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama .
Five packages were traced to a large postal distribution center in Miami ’ s industrial outskirts near where Sayoc was living , forcing staff to evacuate .
The coming weeks saw widespread reports of delayed or missing ballots among South Florida @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the USPS says an internal review found ballot handling was not hindered by the evacuations , local journalists reported concerns that the facility was too short-staffed to tackle the flood of election mail .
Democratic voters in Miami-Dade , Broward , and Palm Beach counties , who make up the party ’ s core support in the state , were sent almost twice as many absentee ballots as Republicans , but 144,000 of the Democrats ’ ballots were never returned or didn ’ t arrive back in time .
Republican Ron DeSantis was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Scott , also a Republican , won a US Senate seat by 10,000 votes .
While nearly a third of Florida voters cast mail ballots in that election , some core Democratic constituencies were far more likely to have those votes thrown out , even when ballots were returned in time to be counted .
Mail voters in Florida , who voted without the assistance of poll workers , had nearly 32,000 votes tossed over small mistakes like a forgotten envelope signature or because officials concluded a voter ’ s signature did not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ were 18 to 21 had their ballots rejected more than eight times as often as voters 65 or older .
Black , Hispanic , and other voters of color were more than twice as likely as white voters to have mail-in ballots rejected .
Overall , Florida ’ s mail voters were 15 times more likely to have ballots thrown out than in-person voters .
In 2018 , 1.4 percent of mail-in ballots cast nationwide were rejected .
If that rate holds in 2020 and half the country votes by mail , about @ @ @ @ @ @ @ swing the outcomes in key states .
While groups like Rock the Vote and Voto Latino have reported a major increase in voter registrations amid the protests over George Floyd ’ s killing by a Minneapolis police officer , calls for young people and people of color to reshape to 2020 elections by voting in record numbers must contend with the reality that those communities , most affected by racism and police brutality , could also have the toughest time voting this year .
“ As we push more people to vote by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , the number of ballots that aren ’ t counted is going to increase .
And we know those ballots are not equally distributed .
This burden is shared disproportionately by young and minority voters , ” Elias said .
Wisconsin ’ s disastrous election on April 7 , when officials proceeded with a primary and state Supreme Court race despite a statewide shelter-in-place order , provided a vivid illustration of how not to vote during a pandemic .
Republican leaders in the state legislature rebuffed calls by Gov .
Tony Evers , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ or mail an absentee ballot to every registered voter .
With many people afraid to leave their homes , and cities closing the bulk of their polling places because of poll worker shortages—Milwaukee opened just 5 of 180—anxious Wisconsinites were forced to wait hours in line to vote .
Just 6 percent of the state ’ s voters cast ballots by mail in 2018 ; this spring around 60 percent did .
While photos of masked voters and poll workers in protective gear drew national outrage , they may have obscured the fact @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that huge increase .
Though officials worked around the clock—Madison ’ s city clerk said she logged more than 100 hours a week during the close of the election—121,000 mail-in ballots were not returned , as voters complained they didn ’ t receive them in time or at all , because of mistakes by election workers or the post office .
A spokesperson for the Wisconsin Elections Commission confirmed that the dramatic increase in absentee voting “ certainly caught us by surprise , ” conceding that Milwaukee and Green Bay , both home @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to get every requester a ballot , unlike “ the vast majority ” of the states ’ 1,850 municipalities .
Wisconsin also shined a light on the restrictive rules for mail-in ballots .
Voters had to get a witness to watch them fill out their ballots , difficult for anyone living alone at a time of social distancing .
Many voters had to include a copy of their photo ID to request an absentee ballot , which at a minimum required uploading a picture of their ID or photocopying it .
Such rules @ @ @ @ @ @ @ helped lead to an estimated 23,000 absentee ballots being rejected—almost the same number that Trump carried the state by in 2016 .
Weiser said that Wisconsin “ dodged a bullet in that the election wasn ’ t close.
” In the state ’ s Democratic presidential primary , Joe Biden easily defeated Bernie Sanders , who suspended his campaign the next day , and progressive candidate Jill Karofsky won a hard-fought race for a seat on the state Supreme Court by 11 points .
Weiser warned that the way voting took place exposed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was not prepared for that will only be exacerbated in a presidential election.
” Indeed , only a third of adult Wisconsinites voted in the April elections .
Turnout this November is expected to double that , pushed higher by young , first-time , and infrequent voters .
“ If 34 percent turnout strained resources close to the breaking point , what is 70 percent or more turnout going to look like ?
” Weiser wonders .
“ That really worries me.
” A number of states that held primaries in early June @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Washington , DC , where election officials ill-equipped to handle a surge in absentee ballots and polling places were cut , a larger-than-expected turnout saw in-person voters forced to wait up to six hours .
In Maryland , where the governor issued an order to send mail ballots to every registered voter , a million ballots were delayed or never arrived .
And in Pennsylvania , the huge volume of mail ballots created counting delays , especially in Philadelphia , that have left some 20 state races uncalled days after the election .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ upon by Trump to attempt to discredit results that would otherwise see him removed from office .
Mail-in voting takes practice .
Oregon , the first state to adopt all-mail elections in the 1990s , now boasts one of the country ’ s lowest ballot rejection rates and increased turnout of low-propensity voters , including young voters and communities of color .
“ The real tipping point is when most of your voters have done it and are comfortable with it , ” said Phil Keisling , who served as Oregon ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
But the state ’ s elegantly simple system—ballots are mailed to every active registered voter—is unusual .
Many of the states most likely to decide the presidential election have substantial barriers to mail-in voting .
In 16 states , mostly in the South and Northeast , to get an absentee ballot you must provide an approved reason , under penalty of perjury , why you can ’ t vote in person on election day .
Nearly a dozen states have a requirement like Wisconsin ’ s that absentee voting be witnessed ; @ @ @ @ @ @ @ two witnesses or a notarized affidavit .
And many states don ’ t make it easy to get a ballot or have it counted .
Thirty-one states do not offer a way for all citizens to request an absentee ballot online , forcing voters to mail forms to county registration offices .
And 36 states don ’ t provide postage to return ballots , which functions as a de facto poll tax .
In 26 states—including New Hampshire , Pennsylvania , and Virginia—election officials are not required to notify voters if there ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ballot , such as a missing or mismatched signature , before throwing it out .
Despite Trump ’ s false claim that mail-in voting benefits Democrats , the parties ’ voters made roughly equal use of the option in 2016 , and it ’ s helped Republicans in key swing states like Arizona and Florida .
Older and whiter voters tend to vote by mail more than the overall electorate .
According to a Brennan Center analysis of voting in seven presidential battlegrounds , voters 65 or over were roughly twice as likely @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 40 .
Nationwide , in 2018 , just 11 percent of Black voters cast ballots by mail while 23 percent of white voters did .
Trump and the RNC have signaled they ’ ll fight expansions of mail-in voting that would make the process more accessible for younger and more diverse voters , but not for their most reliable voters , such as mailing absentee ballot applications to anyone over 64 .
Ben Wikler , who helped thousands of voters cast their first mail-in ballots in April as chair of the Wisconsin Democratic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is Republicans will apply the ruthless cynicism they ’ ve used for in-person voter suppression to absentee voter suppression and we ’ ll be fighting against a whole new set of tactics.
” Another worry is the spread of disinformation about how to vote , which could be particularly disruptive in a year when Americans will have to adopt unfamiliar procedures .
The potential methods go well beyond what ’ s known about Russia ’ s 2016 playbook .
Shady political organizations could send people genuine-seeming but fake absentee ballots , set up @ @ @ @ @ @ @ they ’ ve requested ballots , spread the wrong deadline for returning mail-in ballots , or give incorrect information about the type of documentation or identification needed to vote .
“ The pandemic could likely be weaponized in the hands of those that already had the intent to suppress the vote , ” said Vanita Gupta , president of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights .
“ There are a lot more challenges now to conducting elections .
There ’ s a lot more potential for mischief.
” “ The silver @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , “ was it raised the alarm for folks who weren ’ t necessarily focusing on the elections and democracy component of COVID .
It certainly awakened local and state officials—they don ’ t want those same Wisconsin photos on their watch.
” Voting rights groups and Democratic lawyers have filed two dozen lawsuits challenging vote-by-mail rules , including laws that forbid counting ballots not received by Election Day or with mismatched signatures .
“ A lot of the litigation I ’ m doing is focused on how we remove those barriers , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ system to ensure that everyone who casts a lawful ballot has it counted , ” said Elias .
Advocates are urgently petitioning states to expand online registration to pick up demand created by shuttered DMVs , where people most often register .
They are also rallying to have election administrators send ballots or , at the very least , absentee ballot applications , to all registered voters ; preserve safe in-person options for communities that distrust mail-in voting ; and ensure enough early voting , polling locations , and poll workers to allow @ @ @ @ @ @ @ distancing .
Doing all that will require a lot of money .
It will mean hiring election workers , giving them protective equipment , buying new tallying machines for absentee ballots , and covering increased postage costs , while still having enough to open and staff polling places .
The $ 400 million in aid to states that Congress allocated in its first economic recovery bill is “ woefully inadequate , ” said Gupta , who estimated that $ 2 billion or more is needed .
“ If states only have the money @ @ @ @ @ @ @ see problems like we saw in Wisconsin , ” predicted Weiser , “ in 40 or more states and at probably much worse levels…It will be disastrous.
” The electoral response to the coronavirus mirrors the public health one , with little national leadership , and state action varying widely .
Some states , like California , which is sending mail-in ballots to all registered voters , are doing a lot to make voting easier while others , like Texas , are fighting commonsense steps to expand voter access .
Elements of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ working quietly to respond responsibly and ensure a free and fair election , but Trump is actively undermining that goal by lying about the prevalence of voter fraud and opposing mail-in voting .
The president ’ s disastrous handling of the coronavirus outbreak may have imperiled his reelection chances .
But its disproportionate impacts could play to his advantage .
The counties with the highest rates of covid-19 as of mid-April voted for Clinton by 19 points , while the areas with the lowest rates supported Trump by 15 points .
If the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Election Day , residents of these large and staunchly Democratic cities could be afraid to vote in person—and in most states , they ’ ll face untested election systems with their own potentially decisive faults .
As Wikler noted in the wake of Wisconsin ’ s primary , “ The harder it is to vote , the more people wind up getting pushed to the side .
”

H. Drew Galloway, executive director of MOVE Texas, spends his life trying to register young voters. Typically, in the spring of an election year, Galloway would be overseeing a staff of about four dozen who, before classes end for the summer, register newly eligible voters on 55 college campuses and at dozens of high schools.
Last year, MOVE Texas signed up more than 25,000 new voters. It reached nearly 8,000 more this year before the state’s March 3 presidential primary. But then the coronavirus outbreak scattered students, and MOVE Texas, like every other political group, suspended in-person registration drives. “We’ve gone from registering 2,000 people a week to registering maybe 100,” Galloway told me in April. “Voter registration is decimated in Texas.”
“Introduce a pandemic and that makes everything you were planning to do in person quite a bit more difficult.”
Even before the pandemic, Texas was a hard place to register. As of May, it was one of 10 states with no way to do so online. Anyone who wants to sign up voters must be deputized by each county they work in, every two years. Texas has an estimated 5.5 million unregistered but eligible voters—more people than the individual populations of 28 other states. The majority of them, according to the Texas Democratic Party, are young, people of color, or both, who would likely favor Democrats if they voted. Luke Warford, who directs the party’s efforts to expand voting, told me that Texas Democrats had hoped to see 2 million new people register this year as part of its push to tip the state blue. “We had plans to run the largest statewide voter registration program in history,” he said. “Introduce a pandemic and that makes everything you were planning to do in person quite a bit more difficult.”
Even if new voters succeed in registering, without changes to the existing system they’ll face unequal access to mail-in ballots. Texas limits mail-in voting for those under 65 to people who are out of town during the election, in jail, or have a “sickness or physical condition” that prevents them from going to the polls. Meanwhile, any voter 65 or older—the strongest age demographic for Donald Trump in 2016—can request an absentee ballot with no questions asked.
In April, a state judge ruled that people afraid of contracting the coronavirus while voting had a legitimate reason to get an absentee ballot. Texas’ Republican attorney general has opposed the ruling, claiming that “a fear of contracting COVID-19” is “an emotional condition and not a physical” one, and has raised the prospect of “criminal sanctions” for groups like MOVE Texas that help voters under 65 obtain mail-in ballots. In late May, the state’s all-Republican Supreme Court agreed a lack of immunity to the virus alone was not a valid reason, but said voters could weigh their health history and make their own decision—a ruling that could cause confusion and leave some people requesting mail ballots open to prosecution. A separate appeal on the matter is pending in federal court.
You can also listen to Ari Berman's print version of this story read aloud:
What’s happened in Texas is happening nationwide: The coronavirus has heightened the already considerable obstacles blocking citizens from exercising their right to vote. In the last decade, Republicans have enacted new voting restrictions in 25 states. The Supreme Court has gutted the Voting Rights Act, unleashing new efforts in states with long histories of voting discrimination to make it harder for voters of color to cast ballots. And then there are the Russians, who attempted to access election infrastructure in all 50 states in 2016, and could try again. “What you’ve done with coronavirus,” said Marc Elias, the leading Democratic voting rights lawyer, “is you’ve added one more huge stressor to a system that was already at the breaking point.” The risk of mass voter disenfranchisement is greater in 2020 than at any time since the era before the abolition of poll taxes and literacy tests in the 1960s.
Voter ID laws are far more discriminatory when Department of Motor Vehicle offices are shuttered. Purges are more harmful when removed voters cannot easily reregister. Limited polling places and five-hour waits are especially pernicious under the threat of viral infection. And voter registration and traditional get-out-the-vote efforts have stalled. “Souls to the Polls” drives led by Black churches have been put on hold. States have delayed primaries and severely reduced or wholly eliminated in-person voting. Few are prepared to handle a surge of mail-in ballots in November. Democrats worry that COVID-19 could be weaponized to the GOP’s advantage, locking in an older and whiter electorate that stems the impact of demographic change.
“Coronavirus has added this additional layer of voter suppression to everything. The barriers that those laws put up are even higher now,” said Galloway. “That’s directly going to affect communities of color, low-income communities, young people.” The numbers are startling: In Kentucky, for example, where Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is up for reelection, just 504 people registered in March compared to 7,256 the month before. In key states like Texas, Georgia, North Carolina, and Virginia, the number of new voters who registered in March was half or less than it was during the same time period in 2016.
Public health and election experts agree that voting by mail is the safest way to cast a ballot in a pandemic. Yet most states are unprepared to hold mail elections in a way that won’t lead to significant voter disenfranchisement. The six best-positioned states—California, Colorado, Hawaii, Oregon, Utah, and Washington—have already put in place systems where a ballot is sent to every registered voter. In three other Western states—Arizona, Montana, and New Mexico—a majority of votes are cast by mail, according to data from the federal Election Assistance Commission. With Florida and pockets of other mail-in voters added in, a quarter of Americans voted by mail in 2018, a record number. But in the 40 other states, mail-in ballots made up just 9 percent of votes cast. Fewer than 8 percent of people voted by mail in key states like Texas, Georgia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
“Because it’s been a minor method of voting in a lot of the key states, the rules and practices involving mail voting have gotten less scrutiny and haven’t been thought out to make sure they’re fair and accessible,” said Wendy Weiser, director of the democracy program at the Brennan Center for Justice.
The virus has heightened already considerable barriers to voting.
While quickly expanding voting by mail could help many people cast ballots in November, it poses its own risks. If election officials, especially in places unused to the method, are overwhelmed by a surge of requests, ballots might not reach voters in time. The United States Postal Service, which faces a major budget shortfall and attacks from the Trump administration (a major fundraiser for the Republican National Convention was just named postmaster general), could lack the resources to handle increases in sent and returned ballots. And a sizable chunk of the electorate will be unfamiliar with the intricate rules governing mail-in voting and could see their ballots thrown out on technicalities.
Florida’s 2018 election presents cautionary tales, both about how unrelated events could disrupt mail-in voting and how postal ballots can be invalidated. About a week before the contest, Cesar Sayoc, a fervent Trump supporter, was arrested for mailing explosive devices to prominent Democrats including Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Five packages were traced to a large postal distribution center in Miami’s industrial outskirts near where Sayoc was living, forcing staff to evacuate. The coming weeks saw widespread reports of delayed or missing ballots among South Florida’s heavily Democratic voters. While the USPS says an internal review found ballot handling was not hindered by the evacuations, local journalists reported concerns that the facility was too short-staffed to tackle the flood of election mail. Democratic voters in Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties, who make up the party’s core support in the state, were sent almost twice as many absentee ballots as Republicans, but 144,000 of the Democrats’ ballots were never returned or didn’t arrive back in time. Republican Ron DeSantis was elected governor by 32,000 votes; Rick Scott, also a Republican, won a US Senate seat by 10,000 votes.
While nearly a third of Florida voters cast mail ballots in that election, some core Democratic constituencies were far more likely to have those votes thrown out, even when ballots were returned in time to be counted. Mail voters in Florida, who voted without the assistance of poll workers, had nearly 32,000 votes tossed over small mistakes like a forgotten envelope signature or because officials concluded a voter’s signature did not match one on file. Voters who were 18 to 21 had their ballots rejected more than eight times as often as voters 65 or older. Black, Hispanic, and other voters of color were more than twice as likely as white voters to have mail-in ballots rejected. Overall, Florida’s mail voters were 15 times more likely to have ballots thrown out than in-person voters. In 2018, 1.4 percent of mail-in ballots cast nationwide were rejected. If that rate holds in 2020 and half the country votes by mail, about 1 million ballots would be tossed—enough to swing the outcomes in key states.
While groups like Rock the Vote and Voto Latino have reported a major increase in voter registrations amid the protests over George Floyd’s killing by a Minneapolis police officer, calls for young people and people of color to reshape the 2020 elections by voting in record numbers must contend with the reality that those communities most affected by racism and police brutality could also have the toughest time voting this year.
“As we push more people to vote by mail, which is a good thing, the number of ballots that aren’t counted is going to increase. And we know those ballots are not equally distributed. This burden is shared disproportionately by young and minority voters,” Elias said.
Wisconsin’s disastrous election on April 7, when officials proceeded with a primary and state Supreme Court race despite a statewide shelter-in-place order, provided a vivid illustration of how not to vote during a pandemic. Republican leaders in the state legislature rebuffed calls by Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat, to postpone the election or mail an absentee ballot to every registered voter. With many people afraid to leave their homes, and cities closing the bulk of their polling places because of poll worker shortages—Milwaukee opened just 5 of 180—anxious Wisconsinites were forced to wait hours in line to vote. Just 6 percent of the state’s voters cast ballots by mail in 2018; this spring around 60 percent did.
Despite Trump’s false claim that mail-in voting benefits Democrats, the parties’ voters make roughly equal use of the option.
While photos of masked voters and poll workers in protective gear drew national outrage, they may have obscured the fact that the state was ill-equipped to handle that huge increase. Though officials worked around the clock—Madison’s city clerk said she logged more than 100 hours a week during the close of the election—121,000 mail-in ballots were not returned, as voters complained they didn’t receive them in time or at all, because of mistakes by election workers or the post office.
A spokesperson for the Wisconsin Elections Commission confirmed that the dramatic increase in absentee voting “certainly caught us by surprise,” conceding that Milwaukee and Green Bay, both home to many Democratic voters, had failed to get every requester a ballot, unlike “the vast majority” of the states’ 1,850 municipalities.
Wisconsin also shined a light on the restrictive rules for mail-in ballots. Voters had to get a witness to watch them fill out their ballots, difficult for anyone living alone at a time of social distancing. Many voters had to include a copy of their photo ID to request an absentee ballot, which at a minimum required uploading a picture of their ID or photocopying it. Such rules, which Republicans refused to waive, helped lead to an estimated 23,000 absentee ballots being rejected—almost the same number that Trump carried the state by in 2016.
Weiser said that Wisconsin “dodged a bullet in that the election wasn’t close.” In the state’s Democratic presidential primary, Joe Biden easily defeated Bernie Sanders, who suspended his campaign the next day, and progressive candidate Jill Karofsky won a hard-fought race for a seat on the state Supreme Court by 11 points. Weiser warned that the way voting took place exposed “a lot of gaps the system was not prepared for that will only be exacerbated in a presidential election.”
Indeed, only a third of adult Wisconsinites voted in the April elections. Turnout this November is expected to double that, pushed higher by young, first-time, and infrequent voters. “If 34 percent turnout strained resources close to the breaking point, what is 70 percent or more turnout going to look like?” Weiser wonders. “That really worries me.”
A number of states that held primaries in early June experienced problems similar to Wisconsin. In Washington, DC, where election officials ill-equipped to handle a surge in absentee ballots and polling places were cut, a larger-than-expected turnout saw in-person voters forced to wait up to six hours. In Maryland, where the governor issued an order to send mail ballots to every registered voter, a million ballots were delayed or never arrived. And in Pennsylvania, the huge volume of mail ballots created counting delays, especially in Philadelphia, that have left some 20 state races uncalled days after the election. Similar delays in November could be seized upon by Trump to attempt to discredit results that would otherwise see him removed from office.
Mail-in voting takes practice. Oregon, the first state to adopt all-mail elections in the 1990s, now boasts one of the country’s lowest ballot rejection rates and increased turnout of low-propensity voters, including young voters and communities of color. “The real tipping point is when most of your voters have done it and are comfortable with it,” said Phil Keisling, who served as Oregon’s secretary of state from 1991 to 1999.
But the state’s elegantly simple system—ballots are mailed to every active registered voter—is unusual. Many of the states most likely to decide the presidential election have substantial barriers to mail-in voting. In 16 states, mostly in the South and Northeast, to get an absentee ballot you must provide an approved reason, under penalty of perjury, why you can’t vote in person on election day. Nearly a dozen states have a requirement like Wisconsin’s that absentee voting be witnessed; Alabama goes so far as to mandate two witnesses or a notarized affidavit.
And many states don’t make it easy to get a ballot or have it counted. Thirty-one states do not offer a way for all citizens to request an absentee ballot online, forcing voters to mail forms to county registration offices. And 36 states don’t provide postage to return ballots, which functions as a de facto poll tax. In 26 states—including New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, and Virginia—election officials are not required to notify voters if there’s a problem with a received absentee ballot, such as a missing or mismatched signature, before throwing it out.
Despite Trump’s false claim that mail-in voting benefits Democrats, the parties’ voters made roughly equal use of the option in 2016, and it’s helped Republicans in key swing states like Arizona and Florida. Older and whiter voters tend to vote by mail more than the overall electorate. According to a Brennan Center analysis of voting in seven presidential battlegrounds, voters 65 or over were roughly twice as likely to vote by mail than those under 40. Nationwide, in 2018, just 11 percent of Black voters cast ballots by mail while 23 percent of white voters did.
Trump and the RNC have signaled they’ll fight expansions of mail-in voting that would make the process more accessible for younger and more diverse voters, but not for their most reliable voters, such as mailing absentee ballot applications to anyone over 64.
Ben Wikler, who helped thousands of voters cast their first mail-in ballots in April as chair of the Wisconsin Democratic Party, warns that “the danger is Republicans will apply the ruthless cynicism they’ve used for in-person voter suppression to absentee voter suppression and we’ll be fighting against a whole new set of tactics.”
Another worry is the spread of disinformation about how to vote, which could be particularly disruptive in a year when Americans will have to adopt unfamiliar procedures. The potential methods go well beyond what’s known about Russia’s 2016 playbook. Shady political organizations could send people genuine-seeming but fake absentee ballots, set up bogus websites to trick people into thinking they’ve requested ballots, spread the wrong deadline for returning mail-in ballots, or give incorrect information about the type of documentation or identification needed to vote.
“The pandemic could likely be weaponized in the hands of those that already had the intent to suppress the vote,” said Vanita Gupta, president of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. “There are a lot more challenges now to conducting elections. There’s a lot more potential for mischief.”
“The silver lining” of Wisconsin, Gupta said, “was it raised the alarm for folks who weren’t necessarily focusing on the elections and democracy component of COVID. It certainly awakened local and state officials—they don’t want those same Wisconsin photos on their watch.”
Voting rights groups and Democratic lawyers have filed two dozen lawsuits challenging vote-by-mail rules, including laws that forbid counting ballots not received by Election Day or with mismatched signatures. “A lot of the litigation I’m doing is focused on how we remove those barriers, those friction points, in this overburdened system to ensure that everyone who casts a lawful ballot has it counted,” said Elias.
Advocates are urgently petitioning states to expand online registration to pick up demand created by shuttered DMVs, where people most often register. They are also rallying to have election administrators send ballots or, at the very least, absentee ballot applications, to all registered voters; preserve safe in-person options for communities that distrust mail-in voting; and ensure enough early voting, polling locations, and poll workers to allow voters and election officials to practice social distancing.
Doing all that will require a lot of money. It will mean hiring election workers, giving them protective equipment, buying new tallying machines for absentee ballots, and covering increased postage costs, while still having enough to open and staff polling places. The $400 million in aid to states that Congress allocated in its first economic recovery bill is “woefully inadequate,” said Gupta, who estimated that $2 billion or more is needed.
“If states only have the money they have now, we’ll see problems like we saw in Wisconsin,” predicted Weiser, “in 40 or more states and at probably much worse levels…It will be disastrous.”
The electoral response to the coronavirus mirrors the public health one, with little national leadership, and state action varying widely. Some states, like California, which is sending mail-in ballots to all registered voters, are doing a lot to make voting easier while others, like Texas, are fighting commonsense steps to expand voter access. Elements of the federal government and state-level Republicans may be working quietly to respond responsibly and ensure a free and fair election, but Trump is actively undermining that goal by lying about the prevalence of voter fraud and opposing mail-in voting.
The president’s disastrous handling of the coronavirus outbreak may have imperiled his reelection chances. But its disproportionate impacts could play to his advantage. The counties with the highest rates of covid-19 as of mid-April voted for Clinton by 19 points, while the areas with the lowest rates supported Trump by 15 points. If the virus surges or stay-at-home orders return for Election Day, residents of these large and staunchly Democratic cities could be afraid to vote in person—and in most states, they’ll face untested election systems with their own potentially decisive faults. As Wikler noted in the wake of Wisconsin’s primary, “The harder it is to vote, the more people wind up getting pushed to the side.”


motherjones--2020-06-09--Georgia Voters Are Waiting Hours to Cast Ballots, in a Bad Omen for November

If Georgia ’ s primaries on Tuesday are a preview of what COVID-era swing-state elections could look like in November , we ’ re in for a lot of problems .
“ This election has been a catastrophe , ” Kristen Clarke , president of the National Lawyers ’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law , told reporters .
“ If we view the primary election as a dry run for November , then Georgia gets an F today.
” Voters in and around Atlanta reported standing in line for hours as machines malfunctioned and precincts ran out of backup @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Clarke said many people were forced to go to the polls because they had not received the absentee ballots they requested .
“ Everything that could happen or go wrong has gone wrong so far , ” Robb Pitts , the chair of the board of commissioners in Atlanta ’ s Fulton County , told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution .
The problems , Pitts said , stemmed from a perfect storm surrounding the elections : the pandemic , nationwide protests against police brutality , fewer precincts being open , and problems with absentee ballots @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has tried to place the blame on county officials , and he announced that he ’ ll be launching an investigation .
County officials have pushed back .
DeKalb County Commissioner Steve Bradshaw said of Raffensperger , “ I was raised that if you mess up , fess up.
” Georgia ’ s elections this year have high stakes , given that the state could be in play this fall in both presidential and Senate races .
Among other offices , Democratic voters in Tuesday ’ s primary are picking their party ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Jon Ossoff , who lost a highly publicized runoff election for the House in 2017 , is the favorite to win .
He reported waiting more than three hours to vote on Tuesday .
State Sen. Nikema Williams waited for more than five hours , according to the New York Times .
Georgia had already delayed its March primary so that it could prepare to hold an election in the midst of a pandemic .
It faced similar criticism of its voting procedures during the 2018 midterm election .
As Mother Jones @ @ @ @ @ @ @ : Thousands of Georgians had their registrations put on hold and weren ’ t sure if they ’ d be able to vote .
Some voters were wrongly flagged as non-citizens ; others had their ballots rejected because poll workers told them they had the wrong ID .
Hundreds of polling places were shuttered before the election , and other precincts had four-hour lines .
Absentee ballots were rejected because of signature mismatches or other minor errors .
One Abrams adviser described it as “ death by a thousand paper cuts.
” Earlier @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that the voting process was so dysfunctional that people feared their votes wouldn ’ t be counted .
“ I just don ’ t want my ballot to end up in a dumpster , ” said a voter outside Atlanta who had been waiting for more than 90 minutes .
“ We are all concerned .
”

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If Georgia’s primaries on Tuesday are a preview of what COVID-era swing-state elections could look like in November, we’re in for a lot of problems.
“This election has been a catastrophe,” Kristen Clarke, president of the National Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, told reporters. “If we view the primary election as a dry run for November, then Georgia gets an F today.”
Voters in and around Atlanta reported standing in line for hours as machines malfunctioned and precincts ran out of backup ballots during Tuesday’s primary. Clarke said many people were forced to go to the polls because they had not received the absentee ballots they requested.
“This is ridiculous,” says Anita Heard, a 80-year-old who was first in line to vote at 6 this morning and is still waiting to cast her ballot. “Of course,” she says when I ask her if she plans to stay. “I worked for 40 years — where else am I going?” #gapol pic.twitter.com/4Cd8nwagG9 — Greg Bluestein (@bluestein) June 9, 2020
“Everything that could happen or go wrong has gone wrong so far,” Robb Pitts, the chair of the board of commissioners in Atlanta’s Fulton County, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The problems, Pitts said, stemmed from a perfect storm surrounding the elections: the pandemic, nationwide protests against police brutality, fewer precincts being open, and problems with absentee ballots.
Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger has tried to place the blame on county officials, and he announced that he’ll be launching an investigation. County officials have pushed back. DeKalb County Commissioner Steve Bradshaw said of Raffensperger, “I was raised that if you mess up, fess up.”
Georgia’s elections this year have high stakes, given that the state could be in play this fall in both presidential and Senate races. Among other offices, Democratic voters in Tuesday’s primary are picking their party’s challenger to Republican Sen. David Perdue. Jon Ossoff, who lost a highly publicized runoff election for the House in 2017, is the favorite to win. He reported waiting more than three hours to vote on Tuesday. State Sen. Nikema Williams waited for more than five hours, according to the New York Times.
Georgia had already delayed its March primary so that it could prepare to hold an election in the midst of a pandemic. It faced similar criticism of its voting procedures during the 2018 midterm election. As Mother Jones’ Ari Berman wrote at the time:
Thousands of Georgians had their registrations put on hold and weren’t sure if they’d be able to vote. Some voters were wrongly flagged as non-citizens; others had their ballots rejected because poll workers told them they had the wrong ID. Hundreds of polling places were shuttered before the election, and other precincts had four-hour lines. Absentee ballots were rejected because of signature mismatches or other minor errors. One Abrams adviser described it as “death by a thousand paper cuts.”
Earlier in the day, the Journal-Constitution reported that the voting process was so dysfunctional that people feared their votes wouldn’t be counted. “I just don’t want my ballot to end up in a dumpster,” said a voter outside Atlanta who had been waiting for more than 90 minutes. “We are all concerned.”