[blind-democracy] FW: Announcement & Polling Place Bottleneck Delays Could Begin Soon After They Open, Election Logistics Experts Warn
- From: "Miriam Vieni" <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 8 Sep 2020 13:15:38 -0400
From: Steven Rosenfeld <steven@ind.media>
Sent: Tuesday, September 8, 2020 10:43 AM
To: miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Announcement & Polling Place Bottleneck Delays Could Begin Soon After
They Open, Election Logistics Experts Warn
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Polling Place Bottleneck Delays Could Begin Soon After They Open, Election
Logistics Experts Warn
During the busiest periods, the process will slow due to COVID-19’s constraints.
By Steven Rosenfeld
For the estimated 50 million Americans who will vote at a polling place this
fall, delays and long lines will likely surface sooner than in past
presidential elections—America’s highest turnout elections—because of
challenges due to COVID-19, according to election logistics experts.
“When do bottlenecks occur?” asked Charles Stewart III
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, the MIT director of the Caltech/MIT Voting Technology Project, after noting
that 50 million voters would likely cast ballots at polling places this fall.
“There comes a point, it’s when you reach 80-to-90 percent of [what] the
theoretical capacity is, that the lines just go through the roof.”
Stewart was speaking at a Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC) briefing
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that sought to promote new planning tools that local election officials could
still use to try to prevent bottlenecks this fall. While 80 million or more
voters will likely cast mailed-out ballots, those voting in person will face
COVID-related constraints that will slow down the process when it gets busy.
“Bottlenecks appear for a variety of reasons,” Stewart said. “Sometimes they
appear because you’ve had emergencies… There are three big parameters. How fast
do people arrive? How long does it take to serve people? How many places can
you serve them?”
The pandemic has forced election officials to rethink how they handle polling
place voting. Many have had to find new locations that are large enough to
accommodate social distancing concerns and require fewer poll workers. That
constraint has meant closing many longtime neighborhood precincts and opening
voting centers in public schools and libraries, said Michael Vu
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, the registrar of voters in San Diego County, California.
Even though three-quarters of the county’s 1.8 million voters will vote with
absentee ballots as they have in recent elections, Vu said that the pandemic
forced his staff to consolidate its 1,600 neighborhood polling stations into
235 “super polls” and take other steps, such as doubling the drop-box locations
for absentee ballots and having four consecutive days to vote in person that
end on Election Day, November 3. These steps will be accompanied by “the most
robust” public education campaign, he said. Still, Vu had worries.
“The biggest uncertainty is voters,” he said. “How will voters behave on
Election Day? Will they vote their mail ballot in the high numbers that we need
them to, to really not spread the virus if they go to their respective
[in-person polling] location?”
Gretchen Macht
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, a University of Rhode Island mechanical, industrial, and systems engineering
assistant professor, recommended that election officials use familiar polling
places that are spacious—like public school gyms—if they can. She showed new
precinct layout software that officials could use to map how voting equipment
could be set up to accommodate voter traffic.
Juan Gilbert
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, the University of Florida chair of the computer and information science and
engineering department, described a free ticketing software system
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that he created that could be easily used by poll workers to expedite the
check-in process.
The BPC’s briefing was to alert election officials about new tools to configure
polling places. That discussion revealed that the fall’s in-person voting would
have a range of new elements for voters, which usually slows down the process.
The experts cited other factors that could prompt bottlenecks akin to rush-hour
traffic jams that seem to appear out of nowhere.
“We have examples like this, a recent executive order of the governor of Maine
restricting in-person polling places in that state to no more than 50 people at
any one time,” Stewart said. “We are going to have a substantial number of
people voting in person. Those in-person voting places are going to be
constrained. Officials managing polling places need a plan.”
The experts urged election officials to get specific with estimating how fast
voters would arrive and how long it would take for checking voters in,
ballot-marking, and preparation of the voting station for the next voter. They
recommended having real voters take part in mock exercises.
But what emerged beyond the planning and tools discussed was a big warning for
this fall’s in-person voters. They should expect delays, especially if they
arrive during the highest-traffic periods, which tend to be before and after
work.
The BPC briefing
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underscored that Michelle Obama was not exaggerating when she cautioned
during the opening night of the 2020 Democratic National Convention that it may
take longer to vote this fall, especially in person on Election Day—remarks
that some officials said were a bit too dire. Obama also advised people to vote
with an absentee ballot or to vote in person at an early voting site, thus
making Election Day voting their last resort.
“We’ve got to vote early, in person if we can. We’ve got to request our mail-in
ballots right now, tonight, and send them back immediately and follow up to
make sure they’re received,” Obama said
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. “We have got to grab our comfortable shoes, put on our masks, pack a brown
bag dinner and maybe breakfast too, because we’ve got to be willing to stand in
line all night if we have to.”
Steven Rosenfeld is the editor and chief correspondent of Voting Booth
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, a project of the Independent Media Institute. He has reported for National
Public Radio, Marketplace, and Christian Science Monitor Radio, as well as a
wide range of progressive publications including Salon, AlterNet, the American
Prospect, and many others.
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