Pelosi wants 'vote by mail' provisions in next U.S. coronavirus bill

U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Wednesday she wants to virus-proof the November election by including funding to boost voting by mail in the next pandemic response plan being put together by Democrats in the House of Representatives. Pelosi said at least $2 billion, and ideally $4 billion, was needed to enable voting by mail, to give citizens a safe way to vote during the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed more than 4,300 people across the United States.

She noted Democrats had gotten just $400 million for that purpose in the $2.3 trillion coronavirus stimulus bill President Donald Trump signed into law on Friday. "Vote by mail is so important to ... our democracy so that people have access to voting and not be deterred, especially at this time, by the admonition to stay home," Pelosi told reporters on a conference call.

President Donald Trump told Fox News on Monday that voting by mail would hurt the Republican Party. Pelosi rejected that argument. "When I was chair of the California Democratic party many years ago, the Republicans always prevailed in the absentee ballots," she said. "They know how to do this."

Indeed, some Democrats fear voting by mail could disenfranchise minorities and low-income voters who tend to move more frequently or lack reliable access to mail service. The $400 million in the most recent coronavirus bill is intended to help state and local officials bolster vote by mail and early voting, expand facilities and hire more poll workers.

But Democrats want more money to prepare states for a possible surge in voting by mail, noting the possibility the coronavirus pandemic could last into the fall, or flare again as millions of voters are set to choose the nation's next president on Nov. 3. Pelosi said more money for the Postal Service was also needed. The coronavirus crisis has already upended the Democratic race to pick a challenger to face Trump.

Three states - Wyoming, Hawaii and Alaska - have scrapped in-person voting entirely for Democratic primaries on April 4, and will only permit voting by mail. Ohio and at least eight other states pushed their primaries back to May or June. Democrats are putting together a fourth spending bill to battle the crisis, with a heavy emphasis on infrastructure spending. Trump says he is interested in rebuilding U.S. infrastructure, but other Republicans have shown little interest in doing another large spending bill.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)