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The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

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Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

MA Voting-Rights Group Presses for Easier Absentee Process in Nov.

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Wednesday, April 8, 2020   

BOSTON -- In light of the COVID-19 crisis, voting-rights groups want the state to make it easier to vote by mail.

The Massachusetts Legislature recently passed a bill to make fear of going out in public due to COVID-19 a valid reason to request an absentee ballot. However, it only applies until June, and advocates want it extended through November.

Alex Psilakis, policy and communications manager for the nonprofit MassVote, said he expects a second bill to do just that will be introduced by July.

"There hasn't been much partisan pushback at this point," he said. "The Legislature passed the legislation pretty swiftly a couple weeks ago, but we have a lot more work that needs to be done."

Until recently, the only acceptable reasons for requesting an absentee ballot included plans to be out of town on Election Day, a physical disability or religious reasons. Democrats in Congress are pushing for national vote-by-mail reforms, but have met with Republican resistance to imposing any voting rules on the states.

Psilakis said he thinks Massachusetts should follow the leads of multiple other states and allow any voter to register to receive mail-in ballots for all future elections.

"For somebody to cast their vote in a safe, secure manner, there cannot be any excuse requirement to cast an absentee ballot," he said. "There should be no excuse required."

It would take an amendment to the state Constitution to switch entirely over to "no-excuse" voting. Psilakis said the Election Modernization Coalition, which also includes the ACLU, Common Cause and the League of Women Voters, would like to see the Legislature begin that lengthy process by next session, in 2021.

The recent bill on elections and COVID-19, S. 2608, is online at malegislature.gov.


Support for this reporting was provided by the Carnegie Corporation of New York.


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