Charles Skold Signs Letter to Gov. Mills Asking for More Action to Help Mainers Vote During Coronavirus Pandemic
Joins group of over twenty State House primary candidates in asking Gov. Mills to mail every voter an absentee ballot application and to allow for email-assisted voter registration, among other requests aimed at increasing access to voting.
AUGUSTA – Charles Skold joined with twenty-three other candidates for State House to ask Governor Janet Mills to do more to help every eligible Mainer exercise their right to vote during this time of coronavirus pandemic. The candidates sent Gov. Mills a letter with eighteen recommendations aimed at increasing Mainers’ access to distance voting, improving the safety of in-person voting, and ensuring that every vote is properly counted. Their recommendations include sending every registered voter an application to request their absentee ballot in the mail and allowing citizens to submit their voter registration documents to their town clerks over email.
“I’m running for office because I believe in democracy. I believe in the power of citizens being able to choose their own elected representatives. But democracy only works when everybody has free and fair access to safely and securely casting their ballot. In this public health emergency, many people will have huge barriers to voting and voter registration. We need to do more to expand distance voting and distance registration so that everyone’s choice in the election can be counted.”
The candidates say their recommendations are a necessary response to the current coronavirus pandemic, stating, “the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency poses a threat to the safety of in-person voting and a barrier to the fair access of voting and voter registration.” To address this electoral disruption, they call on Gov. Janet Mills to use the power and funds made available to her by the recent emergency legislation to implement their eighteen recommendations. The legislation, passed in the legislature and signed by Gov. Mills on March 18, empowers the Governor to take “any reasonable administrative actions necessary” to facilitate Mainers’ ability to vote in the upcoming Primary Election in a way that “preserves and protects public health.”
Every candidate who signed the letter is currently running in a contested primary election for their party’s nomination to State House.
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