Pritzker rips Trump, GOP on mail-in voting
Citing ‘enormous ideological difference,’ guv says, ‘I believe in democracy and the right to vote’
Gov. Pritzker holds the daily coronavirus briefing Thursday at the Capitol in Springfield. (Illinois.gov)
By Ted Cox
The governor backed efforts to expand mail-in voting Thursday at the daily coronavirus briefing in Springfield, laying into President Trump and Republicans for “suppressing the vote.”
Conducting the briefing at the Capitol, as the General Assembly meeting in Springfield took up a bill on voting by mail, Gov. Pritzker was asked about Republican opposition. “This has obviously been a Republican strategy all across the country to deny people the ability to actually go to the ballot box or to deliver the ballot to vote,” he said. “Republicans generally speaking have been in favor of suppressing the vote all across the nation. They think it’s bad for them if more people vote. I think everybody has the right to vote. We live in a democracy, the vote is sacred.”
A House committee passed a bill Thursday that would expand mail-in voting this fall and allow completed ballots to be dropped off at a polling place for “curbside voting.” It would also declare Election Day, Nov. 3, a state holiday. It moves to automatically mail an application for a mail-in ballot to everyone who has voted since 2018. The bill cleared the full House later in the day by a vote of 72-43.
Saying he’d like to see secure balloting expanded beyond that, given the uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic in the fall, Pritzker added, “Sending out applications to everybody who voted in the last number of elections — and still giving everybody else the opportunity to get a ballot — I think is a reasonable compromise and gets us what we want. Which is, people don’t need to go to a physical balloting location.”
The governor praised a measure in the bill that also eases voting for “people who do need to go in person, and may want to in the days and weeks … before the election,” given longstanding regulations for early voting already in place.
Trump has threatened to withdraw federal funding to states that expand mail-in voting ahead of the general election this fall, specifically threatening Michigan and Nevada. Pritzker dismissed Republican critics who drew parallels between that threat and the governor’s own threat to withhold federal funding to cities and counties that defy his coronavirus stay-at-home order.
“There’s an awfully big difference,” Pritzker said. “The president is threatening to take away funds from states doing something that’s legal.” He called it “a much different thing” to threaten local governments with consequences for defying the law.
“But look,” he added, “I think it’s very important for people to get access to the ballot. The president doesn’t want that. I do want people to get a ballot and to vote. And that’s just an enormous ideological difference. I believe in democracy and the right to vote.”
Pritzker made the statements after Illinois Public Health Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike announced a slight uptick in COVID-19 hospitalizations to 4,107 statewide, with 1,088 coronavirus patients under intensive care and 609 on ventilators. She announced 2,268 confirmed new cases of COVID-19, bringing the state total to 102,686, but she pointed out that also came from conducting 29,307 tests, a new single-day high. Some 87 new deaths from the disease brought the state toll to 4,607.
Pritzker and Ezike both emphasized the entire state remains on course to enter the third phase in the Restore illinois plan to ease restrictions in the stay-at-home order at the end of next week. But Ezike emphasized that there are still many unanswered questions about COVID-19, including the extent of immunity going forward for people who’ve already contracted it.
“Let’s take it slowly as we go into Phase 3,” she said, “as we continue to learn about the virus.”
Pritzker fully endorsed Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s announcement Thursday that the city may not move forward with allowing restaurants and bars to serve customers outside right away when the third phase takes effect, and that Chicago might wait until June to take that step.
“That’s completely a local decision,” Pritzker said, pointing out that local governments are permitted to be “more stringent” than statewide standards on easing restrictions where they think it’s appropriate.
Without invoking the November general election, Pritzker said the state has to keep a sharp eye out for a rise in COVID-19 infections in the fall with the return of flu season — a prediction made by many scientists studying the disease. “The fall is expected to be a time when we might see another surge,” Pritzker said, “and I’m very concerned about that.”