Politics
Associated Press
A voter fills in a ballot in the presidential primary election at the the Summit View Church of the Nazarene Tuesday, March 10, 2020, in Kansas City, Mo. The polling place served two precincts as voters who were scheduled to vote at a nearby senior living facility were directed to vote at the church after the facility backed out due to coronavirus concerns. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
- On Tuesday Ohio announced it was relocating 128 polling places out of nursing homes before the primary on March 17.
- Other states with upcoming primary votes, like Illinois and Florida, have also seen nursing homes and assisted-care living facilities opt-out as polling places.
- The move comes amid rising concerns over the novel coronavirus, which has increased risks associated with people over the age of 60.
- It's the latest indication that COVID-19 could have political implications, as the CDC encourages those over 60 to avoid crowded spaces.
- In addition to concerns over turnout, Dale Ho of the ACLU's Voting Rights Project told Insider there are also concerns over inadequate staffing at polling locations because the majority of poll workers tend to be older Americans.
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Ohio on Tuesday announced it would relocate 128 polling locations in nursing homes and assisted-care facilities as the state prepares to conduct its primary election on March 17. The move comes as states around the country deal with more cases of coronavirus, which poses larger risks to older age groups.
Other states have made similar moves to relocate polling locations from nursing homes. According to the Chicago Sun-Times, the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners was left scrambling to find new voting locations after seven nursing homes in the city asked to be excused from serving as a polling place during its primary, also on March 17.
While moving polling locations out of nursing homes and assisted-care facilities prevents outsiders who might carry the virus from coming in, it means seniors living there who may have voted in person will now have to travel elsewhere to do so.
"We have a mixture of situations because then it becomes a health issue to move them to another site, to have them travel off the grounds of the facility to go vote somewhere else," Jim Allen, spokesperson for the Chicago Board of Commissioners, told the Chicago Sun-Times.
Mark Ard, marketing director at the office of the Florida Secretary of State Laurel Lee told Business Insider that decisions about changing polling locations are up to individual localities that control elections. In an email provided to Business Insider, Maria Matthews, director of elections in Florida's Department of State, reminded state election staff they could use a state statute that allows for the relocation of an established polling place in the event of "emergency conditions."
Some in the state, sensing fears over the at-risk communities, have heeded the warning. As The Tampa Bay Times reported Wednesday, eight polling locations in Pinellas County at assisted-living facilities were shut down. The 12,000 voters impacted in that county alone will be sent to their nearest polling location on March 17, according to the report.
As Business Insider previously reported, data so far indicates COVID-19 has a higher death rate associated with older age groups. Less than 2% of people aged 50-59 had died from the virus, according to February data from the Centers for Disease Control. But people in their sixties had a death rate of 3.6%, those in their seventies had an 8% death rate and 14.8% of people who contracted COVID-19 in their 80s died as a result of the illness.
The CDC on Monday recommended that people over 60 stock up on food, medication, and other necessities, and avoid crowds and venturing out too much.
At-risk groups have been advised to avoid crowded places, like polling places
Senior citizens have historically had the highest percentage of voter turnout. According to US census data, 66% of eligible voters 65 years old or older voted in the 2018 midterm elections - the highest out of any age demographic.
Dale Ho, director of the American Civil Liberties Union Voting Rights Project told Business Insider that while he's not a public health official, he understood why at-risk populations might be deterred from turning out to vote in their state primary, or even in the general if outbreaks of the novel coronavirus continue.
"There are not just a lot of people coming in and out, but a lot of people touching the same surfaces," Ho said, noting that people will be using "the same touch screens, ballot marking devices, and even just the same pens."
John Sides, a professor of political science at Vanderbilt University, told Business Insider that states' decisions to move primary election polling places could have an impact on voter turnout.
"There is certainly evidence that moving polling places, or the distance you live to your polling place, can affect voter turnout," Sides said.
But, Sides said, it's unlikely to have an impact on the results.
"There is a difference between a factor that might affect turnout of certain individual voters at the margins and something that would affect the outcome of an election," Sides said. "Right now, a variety of factors appear to be propelling Biden to the nomination, and it's unclear that COVID-19 will change that trajectory - even if older, and therefore Biden-leaning, voters are less likely to vote in some places."
Looking forward to the general election, Sides said it's too soon to tell if the virus may have an impact on voter turnout.
"It could be that the coronavirus is largely contained at that point and has faded from the headlines. If so, then I would expect minimal, if any, residual effects on turnout. But if the virus turns into a months-long pandemic, then certainly it could affect turnout," he said. "So I think any take on this has to be pretty cautious and heavily caveated."
It's not just turnout - virus fears could impact the number of poll workers
In the 2016 election, states reported having trouble finding people to staff polling locations on Election Day. According to a study conducted by the US Election Assistance Commission, 65% of precincts surveyed reported having some level of difficulty in finding adequate staff at polling locations.
Of the poll workers surveyed by the EAC, 32% were between the ages of 61 and 70, and another 24% were 71 or older. Coronavirus worries among senior populations may further leave polling places strapped to find adequate workers during the remaining primary elections and in the general.
"I am concerned that most poll workers tend to be older," Ho said. "I do have some worries that poll workers obviously could be at risk, but from an elections administration standpoint, if folks don't end up showing up to work the polls that could mean election administration problems."
The solution to both turnout and poll worker problems, Ho said, is for states to increase education about their vote-by-mail programs so that people in any demographic can cast their ballots without visiting a crowded polling place on Election Day. Ho also touted the usefulness of absentee ballots. in states where "no-excuse absentee voting" is allowed.
According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 33 states have a no-excuse ballot program, meaning anyone who wants to vote that way can.
And for the states that do require an excuse, Ho said states should consider changing their policy before November.
"It's not too late in a lot of states to change the rules to switch from an excuse-only absentee system to a no-excuse system," Ho said.
States need to more clearly offer voters voting alternatives in both primaries and the general
Either way, Ho said, states and other organizations have a duty to more clearly lay out the ground rules for their absentee and vote-by-mail programs to ensure all demographics of the electorate are likely to cast their ballot in both state primaries and in the general election.
"I think whatever public education states are already engaged in around elections need to be doubled," he said. "They need to put vote by mail, and whatever the options or requirements are, to the top. This is very much going to be on voters' minds if they don't want to travel to a potentially crowded voting location. So that information needs to get emphasized."
If states do see an uptick in absentee voting as a result of COVID-19 in November, Ho said states need to be realistic in explaining that counting votes by mail is a process that doesn't allow for as much "instant gratification," and delayed results mean that the system is working; it just takes longer to count them depending on state law.
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