Battlegrounds face virus surge
MADISON, Wis. — Rising coronavirus cases in key presidential battleground states a little more than two weeks before election day are the latest worry for election officials and voters fearing chaos or exposure to the virus at polling places despite months of planning.
The prospect of poll workers backing out at the last minute because they are infected, quarantined or scared of getting sick has election officials in Midwestern states such as Iowa and Wisconsin opening more early voting locations, recruiting backup workers and encouraging voters to plan for long lines and other inconveniences.
Confirmed virus cases and deaths are on the rise in the swing states of Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Wisconsin.
Wisconsin broke records last week for new coronavirus cases, deaths and hospitalizations, leading to the opening of a field hospital to handle COVID19 patients. Gov. Tony Evers said he plans to activate the Wisconsin National Guard to fill any staffing shortages at election sites.
In Iowa, Scott County Auditor Roxanna Moritz opened additional early voting centers in and around Davenport, the state’s thirdlargest city, to try to reduce the number of people casting ballots on election day and to keep the virus from spreading in large precincts.
“Our numbers aren’t getting any better. The more people I can get to early vote, the better,” Moritz said.
The pandemic’s recent trajectory has some voters reconsidering a lifetime habit of entering a voting booth on election day.
Tim Tompkins, a welding engineer in Iowa, took a day off work to cast an early ballot at the Bettendorf Community Center. Tompkins, 62, said he and his wife, Pat, were afraid of coronavirus exposure in election day crowds.
“We’d go through a vat of boiling COVID to get the current president out of office,” Tompkins said.
In some states, voting early still has carried health risks. Voters in Georgia, Texas and elsewhere have encountered hourslong lines that required congregating with hundreds of other people last week. In Georgia, nearly a quarter of the workers in a warehouse where Fulton County’s election supplies are kept and voting equipment is readied tested positive for COVID19.
In Ohio, county election boards have put elaborate plans in place to keep voters safe during inperson voting that began Oct. 6, Ohio Association of Election Officials spokesman Aaron Ockerman said.
Minnesota election officials have recruited all 30,000 poll workers they believe are needed to run the general election. They have crosstrained numerous others as reserves in case they’re needed, said Risikat Adesaogun, a spokeswoman for Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon.