US Congress Must Not Rush Proxy Voting Reform, Consider Change Carefully - Pelosi

WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 10th April, 2020) The leaders of the US House of Representatives are assessing different procedures to allow members to vote from home or other locations during the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, but are far from finding an acceptable system, Speaker Nancy Pelosi told a remote news conference on Thursday.

"We aren't there yet, and we're not going to be there no matter how many letters somebody sends in," Pelosi told reporters, speaking from her home in San Francisco. "There are some technologies you might think are workable, but they might not be secure. ... If the rules needed to be changed, it needs to be done carefully."

Pelosi said such a change would raise constitutional issues and also ones about the security of the communications and voting system being used.

"Transferring to remote voting, it's not that easy. This is something that is being pursued... That is being worked upon," she said.

Pelosi recalled that putting through a reform on the nature of a quorum of congressional members needed to keep both chambers functioning took three years to achieve after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington, DC.