Voting during a pandemic

[Texas Jeff 1945]

What the heck will voting look like in November?  I hope we all agree that everyone eligible to vote should have a chance to vote safely, even if we disagree with their vote.  How do we make that happen?

I see lots of people in line during presidential elections who appear to not have voted since the last presidential election.  They frequently appear to have forgotten what to do.  This is going to be tough this time in Travis County because the equipment is different, and tough for Texas in general because straight ticket voting is no longer an option.  Everyone is going to have to learn to use the new stuff and everyone is going to have to figure out that they can't just vote R or D, they have to vote for each office.

Should we have polling places at open air arenas rather than libraries?  Maybe DKR becomes a super site for voting, or the convention center, or the concourse at the Palmer Events Center.  Maybe school gyms or parking garages might be good locations?  The back room at the local library with a mile long line spilling out the front seems ill-advised.

Who is going to work at these polling places?  The normal 80 year old women who love to do this stuff will be in a bunker, so we are going to have to find younger folks to do the job.

Travis County has moved to a paper ballot system.  They give you a blank paper ballot and you put it in a machine and vote, then you turn in your paper ballot to register your vote. It would be great if there was some way to generate the piece of paper before the election.  If we could do that, then they could check your ID at the polls and let you turn in your piece of paper, which would speed up the lines.

How hard would it be to double the early voting period?  After the runoffs, I'll be ready to vote.  Why can't I turn in my work early to spread out voting over more time?

I hope our local election officials are thinking about this but I welcome your thoughts...

[gmr548 16617]

Oh man this is gonna get CR real fast togetyapopcorn.gif

[Js1 85606]

Voting by mail is amazing. Receive ballot at home, fill it out, copy and scan a copy of your ID and sign, and mail back or drop in a collection box.  Zero social contact. 

[Jerry Callo 8734]

Js1 - are you subtly trying to imply that there could be problems with alternative voting systems?

My comment only made sense when Js1 had a triple post.

Edited May 14, 2020 by Jerry Callo

[Newdoc 3453]

Please move this to CR.

[Guest Lobo]

The logistics of to handle in-person activity of the 50,000,000 Americans that are over 55 is not a political matter.  It's a public health one.  It's not political, it's a fucking fact that people over 55 vote, people over 55 volunteer to run precinct voting stations, and people over 55 are more susceptible to Covid-19.  We don't have as much time to figure this out as people think we do.  

Obviously mail-in ballots will be completely corrupted according to some.  Is there a happy medium in there somewhere such that you can fill out the ballot at home, and then bring your completed ballot to your old polling station, you stand 6' apart with a mask on, and get your ID scanned by some modified version of the one they already use but this would be a standup machine (like an ATM), and once scanned...you just then walk down the path and drop your ballot in (just as we've been doing the last two elections in Texas).  Still meets some of the Voter ID requirements, but ballot is completed and deposited for counting well away from other people.  I don't know about how y'all's ballot places look, but mine is the tiny little coffee room of my local Randall's and we vote right on top of each other.  No fucking spacing.  I mean, if you wear a jacket size over 38, you're literally butting shoulders with the person next to you.  nevermind you're touching the same buttons and booth shit over and over again.  You can't ask the 85 year old volunteer to get up between every voter and sanitize each voting station.  It's unhealthy for them and it would turn 30 minute voting lines into 30 hour voting lines.  

These are deadly serious questions that nobody is fucking talking about and it's sickening.  It's not partisan, it's head-in-the-sand bullshit.  Both parties sound like they think a vaccine will miraculously be delivered the day before Election Day and you'll either get yours at the Post Office as you drop off your mail-in ballot to be postmarked or at your in-person voting station as you walk in to touch the most heavily infected surfaces in North America.  Guess what assholes?.......there's a pragmatic solution in the middle there but fuck logic! 

[Texas Jeff 1945]

I'm more interested in the logistics of the process than the political side, although you probably can't keep politics out of this for long.  Sorry if it goes CR but that was not my intent.

We have a run-off election coming up that will be lightly attended.  It's a chance to try to adapt to current conditions without large voting numbers.  Hopefully our election officials will learn from the experience.

 

[Js1 85606]

6 minutes ago, Texas Jeff said:

I'm more interested in the logistics of the process than the political side, although you probably can't keep politics out of this for long.  Sorry if it goes CR but that was not my intent.

We have a run-off election coming up that will be lightly attended.  It's a chance to try to adapt to current conditions without large voting numbers.  Hopefully our election officials will learn from the experience.

 

The logistics on in-person voting during a pandemic for a presidential election is crazy.

A) You often have long wait times in urban and suburban areas in a normal presidential year.  Now add in the possibility of every machine having to be disinfected/sanitized between voters.  Plus waiting in line 6 feet apart.  

B) County-wide polling places (in big Texas counties) and/or Early Voting anywhere means you're now, in an era of social distancing, putting people from different communities in the same spaces.

C) (Kinda CR) MUH FREEDOMS people are going to be super "fuck you" about wearing a mask.  That's (in a sense) intimidating people who are more cautious/immune compromised to think twice about showing up to vote.  

D) The physical act of signing in to vote - handing over your ID, grabbing a pen to sign the voter roll, being handed your little paper slip with your voting number on it - all requires people touching things and handing them to other people.  

[Guest Lobo]

The demographics of likely voters also cannot be denied in terms of those most at-risk for transferring the virus and then...those most at-risk for acquiring the virus.

That's where it really gets tricky.  And postponing it by a matter of weeks is not going to change those two lineups.  

[BabaYaga 15328]

You have two weeks to vote early.  If you are scared.  Vote early.  Get the word out.  Set up dedicated "senior" precincts if you want.  Turn the voting precincts into sterilized areas.  Nuke them with cleaner.  Mandatory PPE.  Everything we do for all the other areas all of a sudden aren't effective for precincts?  Between 2012 and 2018, 28.3 million mail-in ballots remain unaccounted for, according to data from the federal Election Assistance Commission.  Concern seems justified.