We all know the 2020 election is the most important election of our lifetime.
Throw in a global pandemic where over 150,000 Americans have lost their lives due to gross incompetence coupled with skyrocketing cases across the country and it becomes the most important election in the history of our country.
Congress has passed several stimulus bills in response to the Coronavirus pandemic. While some Americans received a small amount of financial assistance, billions (trillions?) of dollars were allocated to businesses under the guise of restarting the economy.
Except the economy hasn’t restarted. Unemployment rates are the highest since the Great Depression and continue to climb each month the United States battles a virus the Trump administration chose not to fight.
Our government didn’t think twice about bailing out lobbyists, oil companies and airlines but hotly debates whether supplying unemployment insurance equal to a living wage or recurring stimulus to allow people to stay home and safe is feasible.
Many Americans are outraged and ready to channel their rage into the ballot box this fall. There is legitimate concern regarding exercising our constitutional right to vote while maintaining social distancing and keeping poll workers safe.
Unsurprisingly, the conversation has shifted toward a safe alternative, demanding increased funding for mail-in voting as well as funding the United States Post Office.
The HEROES Act proposed $3.6 billion dollars to fund mail-in voting and $25 billion to fund the postal service, but Congressional Republicans are strongly against it.
While House Democrats were right to include these provisions in order for Americans to vote safely in the HEROES Act, there is a glaring hole in this plan—voters will not vote by mail if they have no address to receive a ballot.
The efficacy of political mailers and postcards to help “get out the vote,” even becomes questionable if the very voters they are designed to persuade won’t be living at their addresses to receive them.
If Democrats are expecting record turnout in 2020 to oust the man responsible for the botched response to Coronavirus, then they better start negotiating an extension on the (now expired) moratorium on evictions.
It is estimated that over 20 million Americans are at risk of losing their homes due to the pandemic.
Lawmakers know that evictions will disproportionally affect communities of color and contribute to an already out of control infection rate. With Congress in a stalemate over the expanded unemployment benefit of $600 per week, an amount already too little for many families, evictions are expected to skyrocket.
It has long been thought that high voter turnout helps elect Democrats. It is increasingly likely that the majority of voters will vote via absentee ballot in the fall.
In states that expanded absentee voting in the June primaries, voter turnout well surpassed 2016 levels. If experts are predicting over 20 million people will lose their homes, there will be no address to send a ballot and will leave many votes on the table.
If Congress cannot get it together to protect people, perhaps they will if it endangers their seats in November. For once, the self-interests of our elected officials align with the best interests of those they represent.
Our country’s eviction crisis will disenfranchise millions of voters at a moment in our history when every vote is critical. Call on your members of Congress to fight for protections for those who are struggling during one of the most dangerous periods in our lifetime.
Melanie D’Arrigo
Port Washington
D’Arrigo is an activist, health-care advocate and former Democratic Congressional candidate from New York’s 3rd District.
