California prepares for 100% mail-in US elections | Society

While reopening of the economy begins, this Friday California took the first step in a debate that at some point the United States will have to resolve: how are they going to hold elections. State Governor Gavin Newsom issued an order that ballots be mailed to all registered voters. This is an unprecedented preventive measure for November in view of the fact that the elections cannot be held normally.

The debate is pertinent because already on at least two occasions there has been a tension between the need to avoid infections and the right to vote. In the Wisconsin primaries, On April 7, Democrats lobbied for the vote to be delayed or the vote-by-mail deadline extended, but the Republicans managed to get it held on their date while expecting low turnout. In New York, Democrats canceled their primaries, scheduled for June 23, but a judge has forced them to be held.

This type of tension can only increase between now and November 3, when the United States holds a presidential election that the two parties consider the most momentous in several generations, and in which the majority in the Senate is also at stake. The director of the Center for Disease Control and epidemiologist at country reference, Anthony Fauci, has stated that there is almost certain to be a new wave of covid-19 in the fall. Experts agree that as long as there is no vaccine, there will be recurring waves of infection.

“No Californian should be forced to risk their health in order to exercise their right to vote,” Newsom said in a statement Friday. The governor acknowledges that “voting by mail is not the perfect solution for everyone”, so the measure is provisional. The order is for all California registered voters to receive the ballots in the mail. But at the same time, the Legislative and the Secretary of State (the electoral authority) will be consulted to see if there is any possibility of a face-to-face vote with certainty. “We are the first state in the country to respond to the covid-19 pandemic,” said electoral authority Alex Padilla.

For the past March primary, there were 20 million registered voters in California, more than the total population of 47 states. Newsom’s preventive movement sets a standard for the rest of the country. If California can mail ballots and manage that number of votes in a territory the size of Spain, the argument of logistical difficulties in the rest of the United States is touched. There is a political undercurrent in the decision. President Donald Trump himself has spoken out against expanding the vote by mail, an option that Republicans believe hurts them because it increases turnout. In the United States, the elections fall on Tuesday and no party is declared to be able to vote.

The decision on the elections comes on the same day that the so-called Level 2 of the confinement de-escalation in California begins, and in the midst of pressures to reopen the economy. Starting this Friday, the factories that closed because they are not essential, some educational centers, stores (to collect outside, not inside) and offices that have made certain modifications and where you cannot work remotely can open. These norms are not the same for the entire State, and depend on the numbers in each place showing that the contagion rate has stabilized.

Permits to open are granted “not with a political mindset, but in a thoughtful and data-driven way,” Newsom said Friday. “We are entering phase 2 together, although some are going a little faster.” At the time of issuing the order, only a few rural counties meet the conditions to open. The application of de-escalation will be very uneven at the moment. For example, in Los Angeles County bookstores, clothing stores, florists, music stores, sports stores, toy stores, and car dealerships were open Friday. The parks are reopening, but not all. In San Francisco, however, there will be more restrictions at least until May 18.

California, the largest economy in the United States, was the first state to issue quarantine orders and freeze its economy on March 19. San Francisco was the first region to do so, on the 16th. Seven weeks later, the rate of infections it grows much slower than elsewhere. So far there have been 63,000 infections and 2,600 deaths in a state of 40 million inhabitants, and hospital capacity has not been overwhelmed.

Information about the coronavirus

–Here you can follow the last hour on the evolution of the pandemic

– The coronavirus map: how cases grow day by day and country by country

– Questions and answers about coronavirus

– Guide to action against the disease

– If you have symptoms, these are the phones that have been enabled in every country in Latin America.

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