Valerie Jarrett: ‘We Should Make It as Easy as Possible to Vote,’ Including Expanded Absentee Ballots

Appearing Wednesday on MSNBC, former President Barack Obama senior advisor Valerie Jarrett said the federal government should make it “as easy as possible” for people to vote as Democrats continue to push a vote-by-mail option ahead of the 2020 election.

A partial transcript is as follows: 

SUSAN DEL PERCIO: When we last spoke, you were talking about increasing voter enrollment, getting people registered to vote, participation. Now we see that there’s a big drive for registering and voting by mail. How concerned are you that the president is looking to privatize the post office, limit the amount of service that is possible for the post office with all of this effort on mail-in voting?

VALERIE JARRETT: Very concerned, in a word. And I think as, you know, earlier this week, Michelle Obama announced “When We All Vote,” an organization she formed, non-partisan organization, I might add, a call on Congress to ensure that we have the ability to have absentee ballots. We shouldn’t have to choose between our health and exercising our most fundamental right to vote.

I think we should make it as easy as possible for people to vote, and unfortunately, we have seen in history now in our country where states have passed laws, practices have been put in place to suppress the vote. We should be doing just the opposite. Technology is our friend. The ability to do absentee balloting is something we could fund and have in place if we get ready right now.