2020 election preparations will be like no other year
Coronavirus poses a series of new problems
City and town clerks and election officials are scrambling to prepare for the fall election season amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Many are actively recruiting young people to be poll workers, who in the past have often been retirees. Because of their age, those retirees are now more susceptible to contracting COVID-19.
“All parts of this election are more challenging because of the pandemic,” said Debra O’Malley, a spokeswoman for Secretary of State William F. Galvin. “We’re going to need a full complement of poll workers. Fortunately, we’re hearing from a lot of young people because they feel they’re in a safer position to work the polls and open mail-in ballots.”
Lowell has posted both a voteby-mail application and a poll worker job application on its website and is taking a look at how New York and other cities successfully managed their primaries earlier this year in the midst of the pandemic, said Elliott Veloso, interim director of elections.
Poll workers could be as young as 17, Veloso said, and the city is reaching out to its career center, UMass Lowell and community organizations to recruit people to man the polls and open mail-in ballots.
“It is going to being a major challenge, but we are going to do everything in our power to have enough workers at each polling location,” Veloso said. “One position the city has taken is we’re trying to do everything possible to keep all of our polling places open to ensure people can get in and out of them as quickly as possible and not have to wait in long lines, where they might be at greater risk.”
Poll workers will be equipped with masks and gloves and will put duct-tape every 6 feet on the ground to ensure social distancing, he said, and voters also will be required to wear masks.
“If they can’t or if they refuse to, we’ll have a table far away from the ballot booths where they’ll be able to vote,” Veloso said. “And the booths will be wiped down with disinfectant several times a day.”
Boston’s Election Department said it will equip all poll workers with face shields, masks, gloves, hand sanitizer and disinfectant wipes and spray.
Voters will be required to wear a face covering. If they don’t have one, one will be provided for them.
Poll workers will clean voting areas periodically, and teams will travel from precinct to precinct across the city every two to three hours to do a more thorough cleaning.
Springfield is going to try to keep all 41 of its polling places open so as not to confuse voters and will also ensure there’s proper social distancing, Election Commissioner Gladys Oyola said.
“So far, it looks like the majority of poll workers will return,” Oyola said. “Some have bowed out, but others have stepped forward.”
Students from both Springfield Technical Community College and American International College have offered to work as poll workers and to open mail-in ballots, she said.
The city also will have four fulltime people, in addition to its usual staff of four, to help with voteby-mail, Oyola said.
Workers will have personal protective equipment as well as plexiglass dividers between them and voters, she said, and the city is buying enough pencils so that voters won’t have to share.
Lawrence City Clerk William Maloney said all 24 of the city’s polling places will be open, but two in assisted living facilities will have to be changed as a precau- tion.