[EL] Anyone have a link to the Klobuchar/Wyden bill? [National Voting-by-Mail, etc.]

[Marty Lederman]

They announced the Natural Disaster and Emergency Ballot Act last Friday
<https://www.klobuchar.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/2020/3/with-unprecedented-disruptions-expected-from-coronavirus-klobuchar-and-wyden-introduce-bill-to-ensure-americans-are-still-able-to-vote>,
but I haven't been able to find any bill language anywhere, and
Congress.com doesn't show it as having yet been introduced.

Does the summary description sound promising?  Sufficient?

If anyone finds the language, please send along, thanks.

FWIW, I'm inclined to think that Congress should simply require states to
adopt the Oregon method before November, to wit:

County clerks mail official ballots to all registered voters between Oct.
14-20.  Voters can mail the ballots back or deposit them at a central
location (a "polling" place) at any time between when they receive them and
election day (but they must be *received *by election day).  And if a
ballot mailed to a voter is destroyed, spoiled, lost, or never received,
the voter may request and easily obtain a replacement ballot.

Several of you who support widespread VbM and who know much more about such
things than I do have cautioned me offline that it'd be difficult/hazardous
to impose such a requirement nationwide for this year's general election
(even if it's an ideal solution for future elections).  I remain puzzled
about why all states couldn't implement it if they began doing so now--why
it's not an easier lift than a bunch of other emergency initiatives that
are occurring as we speak--but I'm duly chastened by the skepticism of
those of you who are more in-the-know.


-- 
Marty Lederman
Georgetown University Law Center
600 New Jersey Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20001
202-662-9937
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