Experts offer advice to ensure safe voting during pandemic
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
Election and public health officials should collaborate to ensure that Americans are able to vote safely during the COVID-19 pandemic, an expert said.
“This is a great opportunity for election officials to work hand-in-hand with public health ... to develop systems to screen and test poll workers before and after [they work] at the polls, ensure that public health is being adequately monitored, expand testing for voters, and train poll workers on appropriate infection prevention and control,” Krutika Kuppalli, MD, vice chair of the Infectious Diseases Society of America’s global health committee and emerging leader in biosecurity fellow at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, said during an IDSA press conference on Wednesday, just over 2 months before the U.S. presidential election.
Last month, the IDSA and New York University’s Brennan Center for Justice published guidelines for healthy in-person voting which included recommendations to offer free masks, expand — not contract — the number of voting locations, and relocate polling places that were previously based in facilities identified as high-risk, including senior care facilities.
Kuppalli said safety measures on polling day do not exist “in a bubble,” and voters should be sure to socially distance in the weeks leading up to the election. Kuppalli also said that, although voting by mail is the safest option, many individuals will be “unwilling” or “unable” to vote that way.
Myrna Pérez, director of the voting rights and elections program at the Brennan Center for Justice, noted during the press conference that unreliable mail service in certain areas and nuances in how addresses are written in places like Native American reservations also make vote by mail a “hot-button issue.”
“We can't have the mechanism by which the government corresponds with them baked on top of a system that already underserves them,” Pérez said.
Pérez also noted that in-person voting allows access to several services — such as assistance for individuals with disabilities and language translators — that are not feasible for mail-in voting. Pérez said mail-in voting may be a good option for some but cannot be relied on for the upcoming election because of the limited timeline. Pérez also referred to the balance between locating safe and accessible voting venues as a matter of risk management and risk tolerance in a “far from ideal circumstance.”
“We are not built yet to handle this kind of volume, nor will we be,” Pérez said. “We need polling places to be the failsafe.”
To address voter safety concerns, the IDSA offered tips for voting in-person. The tips included:
- Stay outdoors as long as possible at the polls;
- Be cognizant of semipermanent markers that highlight social distancing lines;
- Ask poll workers about any questions you may have regarding safety measures;
- Wear a face covering;
- Check for different entry and exit points to limit your exposure;
- Maintain 6 feet of distance between yourself, other voters and poll workers;
- Avoid bringing others with you to your polling location and;
- Exit safely and efficiently when leaving your poll location.
The NBA and NBA players’ union recently announced that NBA team-owned arenas would be converted into voting locations for the upcoming election. Pérez noted that there is not a “one-size-fits-all model” for how to properly repurpose these venues, and that arenas also can be used for sorting ballots to ensure volunteers can maintain adequate social distance.
“This is a time [when] all Americans need to think about what assets they have that they can contribute to the effort, and I have to say I am excited that the sports community is recognizing that they may play a role in this,” Pérez said.
Kuppalli emphasized the importance of curbside voting for individuals with COVID-19, as well as for people who are in contact with infected household or family members. Pérez encouraged individuals who have COVID-19 to apply for a vote-by-mail exemption, even if they live in a state with strict voting guidelines.
“In this time of crisis, we need to make sure that voters have options,” Pérez said. “One of the things that we see, unfortunately, is some politicians trying to reduce the number of voting options when, if we are actually going to make sure that the country makes voting possible for our diverse communities with diverse needs, we are going to need to have polling places in addition to vote by mail.”
References:
- IDSA and Brennan Center for Justice. Guidelines for healthy in-person voting. https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/guidelines-healthy-person-voting. Accessed September 2, 2020.
- IDSA. What you need to know: COVID-19 and voting. https://www.idsociety.org/globalassets/idsa/public-health/covid-19/idsa-voting-infographic-v2.pdf. Accessed September 2, 2020.
Collapse
Press Conference
Read more about
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts