Pandemic primary: why I volunteered at a polling station despite coronavirus
When a primary takes place during a pandemic, civic duty clashes with social responsibility. Everybody should stay in. Everybody should vote.
My story begins on the Friday before the Tuesday primary in Florida. I saw a post on Facebook that urged healthy people who could help out on election day to become poll workers. About 100 poll workers (probably older folks) in Alachua county, where I attend university, had dropped out due to coronavirus fears.
I’m 22 years old. I’m pretty healthy. I called the supervisor of elections office. One hour later, I was at the office undergoing deputy training. Deputies are the people who stand by the entrance telling people to take out their IDs and silence their phones. They keep the peace, which I suppose would be a lot easier not during a pandemic.
On Saturday, I was assigned to a precinct. On Monday, the clerk called me to tell me to be there Tuesday at 6am and that she was bringing chicken soup. On election day, I loaded my own hand sanitizer, disinfecting wipes and isopropyl alcohol into my backpack and headed to the church that would be my home for the next 16 hours.
I was happy to see the supervisor of elections office had provided our site with ample hand sanitizer, hydrogen peroxide, paper towels, gloves and even a spray bottle with alcohol.
My first job was putting up the “no soliciting” sign, which state law mandates has to be 150ft away from the entrance of the polling site. I was supplied with a 150ft rope and set off, with one end to the door handle of the entrance. I really don’t know how I managed to tangle the brand new rope as I unwrapped it but I know that I will never feel as bad about tangling my headphones from now on.
Then we set up signs marking accessible parking, signs helping point people toward the entrance, signs telling people to turn off their phones and so on.
When we opened at 7am, there was a line of people who hoped to beat the crowd by coming early. As the day went on, some people came with gloves and masks. Others held their driver’s licenses through plastic bags, napkins and receipts. Several asked to use their own pens.
While posted outside, I propped open the doors to circumvent to save voters from having to interact with one more “high-touch” surface. Every 15 minutes, I sanitized the guardrails by the steps leading to the door.
After a moment of divine inspiration, I placed “I voted” stickers on the ground, six feet apart from each other so when a line formed, it would conform to the principle of social distancing. Nothing says “social distancing” like spending your day interacting with almost 300 strangers, right?
Over the course of the day, I had four bowls of chicken soup and countless packets of fruit gummies. The people who passed through our polling site were grateful and thanked us for “risking it”. They were jittery and cautious but also determined to cast their ballot. They were relieved when they saw that we were taking hygiene and social distancing seriously.
At final count, 280 people voted at our station before I closed the doors at 7pm. We spent the next two hours cleaning up and completing paperwork.
There was a lot of pushback toward the state of Florida for holding elections during a pandemic as opposed to delaying like other states. It’s hard to say if it was the right decision, as conditions may very well worsen in the future. But looking back on today, I am proud to have served as a poll worker. We did everything we could to mitigate risk to those who wanted to make their voice heard.
These are trying times that have tested everything that we used to take for granted. I don’t think I’ll ever see voting in the same light, now that I’ve seen all the people who put in countless hours and, in this election, put their health at risk in order to keep a polling location open.
Zachariah Chou is a political science senior at the University of Florida
These are trying times that have tested everything that we used to take for granted. I don’t think I’ll ever see voting in the same light