Media
The New Yorker: Battling Anxiety Over Making Sure Your Vote Gets Counted
Such funding is certainly needed, though, for, among other things, allowing election administrators to create multiple paths to the ballot box for voters most at risk of being denied access to it. Democrats have rallied this summer to defend mail-in voting against the President’s attacks, and that is necessary, but “the truth is, vote by mail does not work for every voter,” Hannah Fried, the national campaign director for All Voting Is Local, a campaign housed under the Leadership Conference Education Fund, which works to remove barriers to voting, told me. “African-American voters vote by mail at much lower rates than white voters. Native Americans living on tribal land without a standard address or reliable delivery” of mail can’t rely on that means. “We need options,” Fried said, including ballot-return drop boxes and adequate early in-person polling places.
Pittsburgh City Paper: Allegheny County advocates and elected officials call for ballot drop-off boxes and other election fixes
“We need to ensure safe access for voters,” said Aerion Abney of advocacy group All Voting is Local. “Voters should not have to choose between their health and commonsense democracy.”
Pennsylvania Capital-Star: Activists, W.Pa. lawmakers call on Allegheny Co. officials to increase access to the ballot box
“It is the responsibility of our election officials to ensure fair access to the ballot,” said Aerion Abney, Pennsylvania director of special projects at the voting rights organization All Voting is Local, and a failed challenger to state Rep. Jake Wheatley, D-Allegheny, in the June primary.
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Amid concern over racial disparity, some states expand voting rights for felons.
Shauntay Nelson of All Voting is Local said a separate concern is making sure that people who have not been convicted have the ability to exercise their rights. “Prior to a charge, prior to a trial date, Wisconsin state law allows individuals to be able to still participate in the voting process, and there is a lot of work that needs to be done to ensure that voters can register to vote while they are in jail, to ensure that they can obtain their ballot while they’re in jail.”
Detroit Free Press: Absentee ballot drop boxes, envelopes big problem for Detroit, advocates say
Aghogho Edevbie, All Voting is Local Michigan state director, believes the drop boxes will help facilitate absentee voting this fall and keep voters safe. Voters “should not feel they have to play Russian roulette with their health or their vote this November,” he said.
WDET: Three Pieces of Advice to Make Sure Your Vote Counts This November
As part of the weekly series MichMash, WDET’s Jake Neher and MLive’s Cheyna Roth talk with voter rights advocate, Aghogho Edevbie, the Michigan State Director for All Voting is Local, about how voters can make sure their ballots are counted.