About working polls

Knowing that poll workers are in short supply, I recently attended a training session to work at the polls. After four hours in a moderate-sized room with about 20 volunteers and two trainers who often removed their masks to speak, I began to question my decision.

The safety measures described during training focused on minimizing physical contact—cleaning surfaces between voters, single-use styluses, contactless examination of photo ID. However, this virus is airborne. It is spread almost exclusively through the air from a person’s breath. And yet the mask mandate for Arkansas provides exceptions for voters, poll workers, poll watchers, and children under 10.

The World Health Organization says to avoid the “three Cs”: crowded places, close-range conversations, and confined spaces. Based on past elections, officials told us to expect well over 2,000 people each day. Poll workers will be on duty for 12+ hours daily. There will be close-range conversations. This is three strikes against the voting process in Arkansas. It’s also worth noting that Arkansas is currently a hotspot, with Benton County, where I live, among the worst.

Because we cannot know how many voters (and their children in tow) won’t wear masks, because we cannot know if all poll workers will wear masks, and because thousands of people are expected to pass through the room each day, it’s no wonder that 75 percent of past poll workers declined to work this election. The governor’s mask-mandate exceptions directly and specifically jeopardize the health— and therefore compromise the freedom—of conscientious poll workers.

At our training, poll workers were told not to wear solid blue or solid red masks because those could be construed as a political statement. The truth is not wearing a mask is a political statement. In the end, I decided I would not risk my health and freedom for Trump devotees to make a political statement at the polls.

SUZANNE WILMOTH

Rogers