“We shouldn’t have to put ourselves in danger to vote for you,” a Pennsylvania woman tells candidates in a jolting new ad campaign being launched by Republicans for the Rule of Law.
The ad is part of the organization’s push to promote expanded voting options in November to protect voters from COVID-19 — and for Congress to provide states with the resources to create a solid absentee-ballot system.
The kick-off ad will air nationally during Donald Trump’s Fox News town hall meeting Sunday.
It features actual voters discussing their fears about turning up to vote in person amid the coronavirus pandemic.
“Seventy percent of Americans agree that voters should have the option to vote by mail or absentee this fall; it’s the only logical way to protect our democracy during the pandemic,” said Sarah Longwell, spokeswoman for the Republicans for the Rule of Law.
But states need congressional support to conduct a “safe and secure election” in November, she added. “We’ve lost enough to the coronavirus. We can’t lose our democracy, too.”
A Democrat who last month won a hotly contested Wisconsin state Supreme Court judgeship called her election victory “bittersweet” because of rising COVID-19 cases linked to forced in-person voting. The GOP (not Republicans for the Rule of Law) won court battles to scuttle Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers’ bid for more time to organize mail-in ballots so people wouldn’t have to risk exposure to COVID-19 contagion to vote.
“I find it unconscionable that Wisconsin voters were forced to choose between their safety and having their voices heard in our democracy,” wrote Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice-elect Jill Karofsky in an op-ed in The New York Times on Monday.
As of Thursday, 52 people who worked at polling stations or voted in the Wisconsin election tested positive for COVID-19.
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