Nancy Pelosi: Vote-by-Mail Will Be in Next Coronavirus Bill
House Speaker confident on Democrats push for mail-in voting
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As the Democrats continue to push for mail-in voting, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said it would be included in the next coronavirus stimulus legislation.
Pelosi echoed Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer's remarks saying mail-in voting "will be a very important part" of the relief bill.
The House Speaker praised California after Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom announced plans to send over 20 million voters a ballot in the mail.
Pelosi told Greta van Susteren on “Full Court Press:"
"Well, let me stay a couple of things. First of all, I’m proud of our state of California. Jerry Brown, when he left, scores of billions of dollars of surplus," Pelosi said.
"That’s all gone because of the virus. That’s all gone because of the virus. So, to those who make that charge about, ‘oh, they had problems before,’ it has nothing to do with that," she added.
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"This is strictly, what are your outlays for the coronavirus? What is your revenue loss for the coronavirus? " Pelosi asked.
"That’s what has the support of Democratic and Republican governors across the country. It strictly about this, and it’s about nothing else. It has nothing to do with anything else in the budget of the governors," she continued.
"And we will come and our bill, also have funding for a vote by mail, which we think is essential and supported by Republicans across the country. They like voting by mail. They have more of a habit of voting by mail.”
Van Susteren then asked Pelosi, “How our vote by mail and absentee voting different?”
Pelosi responded:
“This is related to COVID for the reason that we are trying to keep people at home, vote at home and the rest, vote by mail does one thing—I was a former chair of the California party, and our goal was to remove all obstacles to participation.”
Speaker Nancy Pelosi: "We do want to have vote by mail because we think it again removes obstacles to participation but it's also healthier at this time." pic.twitter.com/KDCgChenVW
— The Hill (@thehill) April 10, 2020
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She added:
“This is an opportunity to remove obstacles of participation by calling upon the governing bodies to send a ballot to every registered voter by having same-day registration, by having adequate polling places for those who want to or need in person, but to reduce the number of people who will be gathering in such places on election day."
"We had some elections coming up soon."
"In the state of Wisconsin, they had a number of COVID cases that were immediately traced to people having to stand in line for a long time to vote, so this is not only the health of our democracy commits the health of our people, and it makes the argument, there are states like Oregon that have had a vote by mail for a number of years, and they claim success, and it certainly pleases the people there.”
President Donald Trump blasted the mail-in voting push and specifically California's decision to send all of its residents a mail-in ballot, saying the election would be "rigged."
Trump tweeted:
"So in California, the Democrats, who fought like crazy to get all mail-in only ballots, and succeeded, have just opened a voting booth in the most Democrat area in the State."
Last week, Democrat Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) called for the Democrats' socialist demands to be made "universal."
Omar demanded that vote-by-mail is introduced across the country before the next presidential election as part of her wishlist.
Omar said mail-in voting, along with other socialist policies such as "free" healthcare, a universal basic income, and housing for all, must be offered to everyone living in the United States “as a start.”
