Vote Earth Campaign Addresses Urgent Issues

June 2020

There are two Earth Days this year – April 22 and November 4, Election Day. For the 50th year anniversary, the Earth Day International Network launched the global Earth Day 2020 "Vote Earth" Campaign. Now, we are facing the COVID-19 election emergency.

The organizers of Vote Earth state: “We face an environmental crisis that requires an urgent and transformative response.” They describe Vote Earth as “a global initiative that mobilizes millions of people to demonstrate their concern for our planet by rejecting inaction and demanding change at the polls” so we can “build a more sustainable, healthier and just world.”

They urge us to:

• Educate ourselves about the issues.
• Pledge to vote.
• Be sure to register to vote or call your election office to confirm that you are registered to vote.
• Talk to our young family members to encourage them to register and to vote.

In the past, voter suppression and access to the vote was a major focus of reform and legal challenges to protect the right to vote for African Americans and felons who had served their time. Now how we vote – whether at the polls or through vote-by-mail – has become dangerously politicized and contentious, and the foundation of our democracy is being shaken.     

To understand what is at stake and solutions, please read this introduction to the May 22, 2020 “Position Statement” by the National Election Defense Coalition. The entire Position Statement link includes extremely important and timely guidelines for election protection. The National Election Defense Coalition (NEDC) has built the only bipartisan movement in defense of election security, and is “educating, mobilizing, and moving the agenda for significant policy reform. The NEDC’s partners and allies range from trusted research institutions to leading advocacy organizations, and from progressive public interest groups to conservative national security organizations (see this list of national NGOs and leaders).  I am on the NEDC’s Board of Directors.

THE COVID-19 ELECTIONS EMERGENCY: FINDING BIPARTISAN COMMON GROUND AND COMMON SENSE SOLUTIONS  

In recent weeks a veritable tsunami of fundraising appeals have flooded Inboxes as partisan NGOs look to capitalize on the COVID-19 elections crisis, focusing on Vote by Mail (VBM) as either the solution to protect democracy, or an evil nexus of corruption. Some on the left insist that Democrats must promote universal VBM if they are to defeat Trump. Others on the right proclaim that the Democrats must be stopped from stealing the elections through VBM fraud, despite virtually no proof that such fraud existed in past elections.

The recent campaign for VBM federal mandates has unfortunately now made it a “Democratic wish list issue” and, unsurprisingly, a lightning rod for political opposition from Senator McConnell and President Trump. Particularly after VBM became a major part of a new $3.6 billion dollar House funding bill pushed by Democrats.

Turning VBM into a weaponized wedge issue, now expanded into a grass roots campaign aimed at the Senate, has not only created an inevitable Mexican stand-off, it has overwhelmed the discussion about other urgent and viable mitigations to the dangers posed by the pandemic this November.

Common ground and reasonable solutions do in fact exist, but time is quickly running out for a strong bipartisan push to ensure that effective, state-based efforts are funded and ready for 2020, and that our ballots are secured from hacking and counted with accuracy and transparency.

Every American has the right to vote and have their vote counted accurately. Please share this "Position Statement" with your family and friends, and encourage them to do all they can to defend election security and ensure we have effective, state-based systems in place by November 2020.