I'm hoping Redward, our constitutional scholar, can explain how this is cool.
Days after the Oklahoma supreme court said voters do not have to get their mail-in ballot notarized during the Covid-19 pandemic, state Republicans quickly approved a law imposing new obstacles if someone wants to vote by mail, the Guardian’s Sam Levine reports.
The new measure still requires someone to get their ballot notarized, but says if the governor declares a state of emergency due to Covid-19 within 45 days of an election, a voter can provide a copy of their state ID.
Republicans, who control both chambers of the state legislature, passed the bill, saying it was necessary to prevent voter fraud, which is extremely rare.
Governor Kevin Stitt, a Republican, signed it into law Thursday evening.
The move immediately drew criticism at a time when states are scrambling to make it easier to vote by mail since there is risk in contracting Covid-19 if one votes in person at the polls.
Oklahoma’s next elections are on June 30. “This legislative attack is based on bogus claims of voter fraud, but it is abundantly clear that the real motivation is to make it harder for Oklahomans to exercise their power at the ballot box,” Ryan Kiesel, the executive director of the ACLU said in a statement.
Oklahoma is among nearly a dozen states that require a notary, witness or identification with an absentee ballot.
Those requirements could provide an extremely high barrier to Americans seeking to vote, since it will likely be difficult to track down a notary as businesses remain shut down.
Many voters may also lack a printer or copier to make a copy of their ID. Civil rights groups are suing Alabama, which requires either a notary, two witnesses and a copy of a voter ID with an absentee ballot, saying voters shouldn’t have to meet those requirements amid the Covid-19 pandemic...