House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said Monday that Democrats will push for a vote-by-mail provision in Congress' next coronavirus relief package.
In an interview on MSNBC’s LIVE with Stephanie Ruhle, Pelosi said that it's important to protect the “life of our democracy” as the coronavirus crisis continues.
"In this next bill, we will be supporting vote by mail in a very important way -- we think it’s a health issue at this point,” Pelosi said.
Democrats have been for weeks pushingvote-by-mail ahead of the May and June primary contests— over a dozen of which had been postponed due to coronavirus— and as they look ahead to the November election.
President Donald Trump, however, opposes the idea and has urged Republicans to fight the effort.
Republicans should fight very hard when it comes to state wide mail-in voting. Democrats are clamoring for it. Tremendous potential for voter fraud, and for whatever reason, doesn’t work out well for Republicans," Trump tweeted.
A recent NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll found that a majority of voters — 58 percent — are in favor of allowing voters nationwide to cast their ballots by mail.
It’s unclear when Congress would consider another aid measure since lawmakers are now back in their districts because of the coronavirus threat. Lawmakers last week passed another relief bill to pour more money into the Paycheck Protection Program and to send more money to hospitals.
And as some states begin to reopen their economies, Pelosi said Monday that officials must think about whether it “jeopardizes the lives of the American people.”
“We have to handle it with care,” she said.
