Governor Kate Brown is leading a coalition of the governors of other states in pledging to uphold the integrity of the general election and to work to ensure that voting is safe, accessible and secure, she announced Wednesday.
The coalition includes Oregon, California, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Nevada, New Jersey, Minnesota and Michigan. The governors’ pledge sets forth commitments to ensure confidence in the integrity of the election, in light of unprecedented attacks on voting rights and voting access.
“The Covid-19 pandemic is fundamentally changing the way Americans live and work,” said Governor Brown. “Our nation faces an unprecedented challenge to protect the health and lives of millions. But in the face of such a fight, we cannot let our constitutional right to free and fair elections suffer.
“In order to defeat this virus, no aspect of our society will remain untouched, and that means we also need to take steps to ensure people do not have to choose between their health and safety and their right to vote.”
The governors agreed to carry out the Nov. 3 general election as mandated by law, ensure electoral college electors vote as they are pledged and work with their respective state and local level election officials to ensure that the right to vote is accessible, safe and secure.
They also promised to coordinate with elections officials to communicate with voters about the possibility of delayed results in some states due to increased use of mail-in voting and the status of the count post-election, and “ensure that any substantive allegations of voter disenfranchisement or elections fraud are quickly and thoroughly investigated.”
The complete pledge is available below:
Click to access Multi-Governor-Election-Integrity-Letter_FINAL.pdf
Cover photo by Tom Arthur, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.
