Gov. Greg Abbott made a sound decision in moving primary election runoffs from from May 26 to July 14. Further, he has urged local governments to move their May 2 elections to November. We’re pleased that many, if not all, area governments have done just that.
The hope is that the coronavirus pandemic will be behind us by July — and certainly by November.
The November election date, at which the nation will also elect a president, certainly seems reasonable. It’s even possible, though not a guarantee, that a vaccine for COVID-19 might be usable by that time. Testing for that is expected to begin in September.
The July date is much more problematic. Beyond the fact no vaccine will be available, there’s no evidence the pandemic will have reached its peak anywhere in the United States.
No one knows when that peak will be reached and the timing is likely to be different depending where one lives. New York, which has worked aggressively to combat the virus and where the largest number of cases are being treated, may have a later peak than East Texas.
Or the reverse may be true.
At this point, no one can give more than a guess. So when July comes, serious problems may still exist in Texas. What then?
Moving the primary runoff out even further is not much of an option. The parties must settle on their candidates to run against candidates from the other party in November.
Some time is needed for campaigning before then.
This means Texas must be seriously thinking about what will happen if the pandemic is still an issue in July. Turnout for primary runoff elections is notoriously low, but that could make it ridiculous.
Many Texans who would usually participate may not want to go to a polling place under those conditions.
Unfortunately, it is already almost too late to do much.
One possibility is to allow universal mail-in balloting. Because party “cross-over” is not allowed in the primary runoff, neither party should have a reason to complain about this. Allowing this in July would also allow state and county officials to see what problems they have with the process and how those could be solved.
That’s important because the pandemic could still be causing major problems as we’re approaching November. If that’s the case, Texas will have to decide whether the mail-in ballot option would be broadened for the general election.
The state can’t wait until October to make that decision.
We realize that many will oppose such a move but the rights of people to vote must come first. No voter should have to face deadly illness to cast a ballot.
Are there other options? Probably so, but they might require action by the Legislature, which could make them unreasonably difficult.
That, too, has to be determined well in advance. Those options should be put on the table now.
The pandemic has disrupted almost every part of our lives. Getting ahead of disruption to our elections, though, will minimize its effect.
