The recent local election on Tuesday, June 2 saw a steady turnout of voters even though COVID-19 was, and still is, a threat.
Local resident Gary Shelton was a local voters who decided with all the safety precautions in place he wanted to be sure to make his voice heard by voting. When he arrived at his local polling location, the First Baptist Church in Platte City, he found that the hand sanitizer was depleted. There were signs indicating that there was an opportunity to have the ballot brought out to voters’ cars, but the instructions for how to do so were unclear. Despite distancing tape on the floor, the room where voting was taking place was not big enough for social distancing efforts to be successful to follow the six-feet requirements.
“I did not witness any voting officials using sanitizer while I was there,” Shelton said. “And, the signs for the opportunity to vote from your car did not clearly state that the reason one might do that would be because if they went in to the polling place, there would be people not mandated to use all available safety precautions.
“I thought it was more for people who were physically disabled and could not get into the polling place. If everyone voted from their car due to COVID safety, they would not have had enough staff to facilitate that.”
There were no masks or gloves required at the polling location, and none of the staff was wearing either masks or gloves. Shelton said there were no partitions between election staff and voters like the ones in grocery store check-out lines.
Chris Hershey, a director with the Platte County Board of Elections said he didn’t think the Election Board currently has the authority to require poll workers to wear masks.
“When asked, the Missouri Secretary of State’s office said that we do not have that authority,” Hershey said. “Additionally, particularly in the June election we were facing a poll worker shortage. I think that requiring masks would have caused more workers to quit. I’m sure we cannot make wearing a mask, washing hands, or social distancing a condition for voting.”
Since poll sites on election day are public spaces serving all of a diverse public, Hershey said taking certain precautions or even agreeing what kind of threat the virus poses has become an extremely divisive political issue.
“In such a public space, when my sense of wearing a mask for example, butts up against someone else’s sense that wearing a mask is unacceptable, the result is that one of us wears a mask and the other doesn’t,” Hershey said. “This is the nature of public spaces and public disagreement. Unless and until a body that does have the authority to mandate certain behaviors does so, I can’t ask the public to adopt my preferred behavior.”
The high number of people not wearing masks in the small space of the polling site made Shelton feel unsafe because the voting partitions between voters were not wide enough to prevent droplets being spread by people not wearing masks. Shelton said the partitions don’t provide good privacy when voting either. He believes the election boards should ensure that during this pandemic voters should all be kept safe by requiring masks, social distancing and ample sanitizer at polling stations.
“When we inquired with the election board they replied that if they mandated masks or certain behaviors from staff running the polls, they would lose staff members and not be able to have the polls,” Shelton said. “We deserve to feel safe but also need to have the right to vote. They should have in-person polls in bigger locations such as a school gymnasium. They should be mandated to use all available safety precautions. If Costco can do it, so can our public officials.”
The Platte County Board of Elections provided each polling site with masks, face shields, hand sanitizer for poll workers and for voters, disinfectant sprays and wipes, and guidelines for promoting social distancing. The board encouraged poll workers to follow precautions as recommended by the CDC, but the board cannot mandate that they are followed.
While he waited to vote Shelton said he felt very uncomfortable, disappointed and a little disgusted. Before leaving the poll his wife was so disheartened that she turned and addressed the group of staff members about her disappointment that none of them were wearing masks.
“Like us, they all seemed to be of retirement age, and in the high risk category for the illness,” Shelton said. “The response she got was a cordial, ‘Thank you for letting us know how you feel.’ Later that day when my daughter went to vote at the same location, their behavior had not changed.”
Mail-in ballots might be the safest way to protect voters, Shelton said, as long it is a legal way of voting where the results are widely accepted by all.
Hershey also believes mail-in ballots would be a good way to keep voters safe.
“Even the best protective equipment, implemented in the best way, is not as effective as avoiding contact with potentially infected people,” Hershey said. “I advocated for no-excuse absentee voting to address this specific need. What we got was a little more cumbersome, but still allows any Missouri voter to vote from home. The legislature created an extra excuse to vote absentee, for people over 65 or who are at high risk from COVID19. Voters using this excuse do not have to have their ballot envelope notarized when returning it.”
The legislature also created an option for mail-in ballots that anyone can use without giving a reason. These ballot envelopes must be notarized before they are returned.
Hershey encourages anyone who would like to vote by mail to do so, not only to prevent unnecessary public interaction, but also when more people vote by mail, fewer go to the poll site on election day, which will reduce wait times.
Shelton believes there needs to be more precautions taken at polling locations and he’s unsure of how safe it will be when voters cast their votes in the November general election because no one can predict how bad COVID will be by then. He said voting is a right of every American citizen and is an important way for a person to have representation for their views and that it is also a social responsibility, along with taking precautions in the midst of a pandemic.
“It’s the way we create, ‘We the People,” Shelton said. “Voting needs to be a concrete, definitive right that everyone will exercise, and not seen as a political tool to suppress votes and manipulate elections. No matter what your political party, no one is financially well served by another shut down. We should be doing all we can to use good health practices to avoid that. We need larger polling places to facilitate social distancing, mandatory masks and hand sanitizing at the door and frequently used by all staff, and structural changes like partitions between staff and voters. Basically enforce the CDC guidelines.”
Hershey believes it is important that people vote and feel safe at polling places since it’s important to have the opportunity to vote for people who will make legislative and policy decisions that affect everyone’s lives. Voting also gives the opportunity for people to make some of those decisions themselves when questions are included on the ballot.
He also thinks it is wise for anyone in public spaces, particularly if they can’t maintain adequate distance, to wear a mask.
“Sometimes these issues are very close to home and get right to the heart of deciding what kind of communities we want to live in,” Hershey said. “Beyond all the excitement that comes every four years, every two years we have a chance to elect legislators, and county officeholders. Every year people have the chance to elect aldermen for their municipality, school board members, road district commissioners, people to serve on governing bodies that often go unnoticed but make real impacts on our day-to-day lives. It is important for people to vote so that they can play a part in how those decisions are made, if they want to. Our office is here to facilitate voting for anyone who would like to vote, and is legally eligible to do so in Platte County.”