Voting? In This Pandemic?
What do you need to know in order to safely cast your ballot for this June 2 DC primary? We’ve got you.
Hi, I’m Jill, and I’m an election worker in Ward 1! This is my third election cycle welcoming voters at the polls, processing same-day registrations, helping folks iron out unusual voting situations, all the fun minutiae that makes democracy possible. This is my first year working early voting! And this is my, and everyone else’s, very first time working an election in a pandemic.
I had so many questions about how this was going to go. After my first two shifts working the polls of early voting, I’m thrilled to report that the DC Board of Elections is doing their absolute best to make sure you have access to your right to vote with minimal covid-19 transmission risk.
QUESTION: First things first: What’s the most important thing for DC voters to know about this election?
ANSWER: Request your absentee ballot if you haven’t already! Absentee ballot request forms must be received by DC BOE by May 26 — that’s today! The more people who vote by mail, the fewer people will be packed into polling places, and the lower the virus transmission risk for all of us.
Q: What can I expect if I vote in person? What does DC BOE have in place so that voting doesn’t spread covid-19?
- 20 vote centers are operating May 22 — June 2 (except Memorial Day, May 25) and you can vote in person at any vote center no matter where you live. Click here for vote center street addresses and estimated wait times.
- You’ve got to wear a mask to enter a vote center! We have plenty if you need one. Gloves are also available for workers and voters if you’d like a pair.
- Plentiful hand sanitizer and sanitizing spray! Workers are regularly cleaning surfaces like doors, tables, and voting equipment.
- All check-in clerks, ballot clerks, and voting stations are spread at least 6 feet apart. 6-foot physical distancing markers are set up on the floors to guide voters who may need to line up inside or outside the vote center. Eleven days of in-person voting at 20 different vote centers, plus many voters using absentee ballots, means a smaller number of voters in a particular vote center at any given time, so plenty of room to spread out!
- Plexiglass screens are set up at all the check-in stations to protect workers and voters. If you sneeze dramatically just as you’re checking in to vote, your respiratory droplets would have to get around both your mask and the plexiglass before they could potentially infect an election worker.
- We have commemorative election pens! One end is an ink pen and the other end is a touchscreen stylus — receive a pen at check-in to sign for your ballot without touching the poll pad, and hang onto it to mark your paper ballot or for no-touch use of the electronic voting machine. If you don’t want to keep the pen, every check-in clerk station has a portable sanitizer bag and we’re sanitizing the pens between one voter and the next.
Q: Anything you want to say to those responsible for the mess in Wisconsin, where a certain political party refused sensible updates to voting procedures for their April 7 primary and voters were forced to risk significant coronavirus exposure in order to vote?
A: It is both possible and necessary to maximize citizens’ access to their constitutional right to vote while minimizing the risks of covid-19 transmission associated with voting. DC is proving it’s possible! It just takes some prep time, adequate budget, and the labor and expertise of year-round public workers. The career civil servants at DC BOE turned on a dime in March to overhaul the primary election process for our new reality, and they’re working hard to make sure everything goes smoothly and we have the supplies we need to stay safe. The Members of Congress who travel back and forth to DC but don’t represent us have a moral responsibility to support state and local budgets so that vital public services like election administration can continue. Voting isn’t a privilege just for those whose local tax base is unaffected by the pandemic.
Q: Why on earth would someone be so selfish as to vote in person when they could protect lives by voting absentee?? I bet they’re also going grocery shopping every 7 days instead of waiting until they literally have no food left in their home and taking daily walks 2 minutes longer than absolutely necessary for vitamin D and exercise! I’m so anxious about covid-19 but there’s so little I can control and I’m trying to cope by judging other people’s choices!!!
A: Your anxiety is valid! Judging other people for voting is — yeah I’m gonna say this directly — not valid. People may have to vote in person if they need an assistive device or language assistance in order to vote their ballot. In-person voting is also a crucial backup for those whose absentee ballots get lost in the mail or chewed up by their beloved hamster. There are also people who simply prefer to vote in person, and I would rather they vote in person than not vote at all. We’re all making complex risk assessments about the health impacts for ourselves and others of basically every single one of our choices, with a shocking absence of guidance from the federal government, and that’s scary as hell. Getting judgy with people who are making different risk assessment choices than you might feel good in the moment but it compounds all our stress in the long run, and it’s unlikely to change anyone’s behavior.
Q: I registered to vote online — or I updated my name or address online — but then I don’t think it went through?
A: Use this form to check the voter registration info that DC BOE has on file for you. I’ve heard anecdotally that some people have been having trouble registering / updating their registration with DC BOE’s official Vote 4 DC app. Try registering / updating your registration a second time, using the web page (to register or update your registration) instead of the app if possible. If the voter registration status page still doesn’t reflect the changes, come into a vote center, and an election worker will get you all squared away. A few voters I’ve worked with in my first few vote center shifts have had situations like this, and it took just a few minutes each time to get their registration up to date and all set for them to vote a live ballot that day.
Q: There are no contested races in my ward. Why bother voting when everyone on my ballot is running unopposed and leaving my home for any reason feels so risky?
A: That’s between you and the blessed memory of every person who died so you could vote. DC BOE has really stepped up to the plate here and I’ve felt very safe during my vote center shifts. Sure, it’s less safe than sitting alone in my own home, but it’s significantly safer than, say, weaving between people walking their dogs maskless through Logan Circle. Voting is an essential activity; while an absentee ballot is your lowest-risk option, going to a vote center is about as low-risk as any in-person essential activity can be.
Q: What if I requested an absentee ballot but I never got it in the mail?
A: Use this form to check the date that DC BOE mailed your absentee ballot. If it’s been several days since they mailed your absentee ballot and it still hasn’t arrived, go to a vote center. Check in, and the election worker will see in the system that you requested an absentee ballot and get you set up with a special ballot. That’s a regular ballot that goes inside a special envelope with your info on the outside, so that DC BOE can confirm that they didn’t receive an absentee ballot from you before counting your ballot.
Q: Ooh cool! Is this a way I can vote twice??
A: No.
Q: What if I lost my absentee ballot?
A: First double-check that you can’t find it. Then check here to make sure you didn’t send it in and then forget that you did that. Then go to a vote center and cast a special ballot.
Q: What if I voted my absentee ballot and sealed it in the return envelope, then I lost it before I could mail it? What if some kindly stranger finds it and mails it in, but by then I’ve voted a special ballot — will I have committed voter fraud?
A: If you’re acting in good faith to exercise your right to vote once per election, you’ve got nothing to worry about*. If by some accident the Board receives both an absentee ballot and a special ballot from you, they’ll only count one of them.
*I’m neither a lawyer nor a DC BOE employee, so please consider this answer sprinkled with salt.
Q: I requested my absentee ballot and received it, but then Trump appointed a new head of the US Postal Service and I’m paranoid that my ballot will get disappeared! What do I do??
A: The new appointee won’t take over as postmaster general until June 15 and, high-dollar Trump donor though he is, it’s highly unlikely that he’ll pull absentee ballots out of the mail once his term does begin. Once you mail in your completed absentee ballot, you can check here for the date that DC BOE receives it. Or if you really can’t stomach the idea of your absentee ballot going through the mail, you can seal your absentee ballot in its envelope, bring it to any vote center, and put it in the ballot box.
Q: Can I take a selfie outside a vote center even if I voted absentee?
A: Sure, as long as you can get there and back home safely! Voting is very cool and sexy and your selfie is an important contribution to voting’s public image, whether it’s outside a vote center or inside your home with your absentee ballot envelope. Please keep at least 6 feet from others while doing your I Voted photo shoot just as with all activities outside your home!
Q: Anything else cool to know about voting in this election?
A: DC BOE now has super awesome technology that enables vote centers to print a voter’s particular ballot as that ballot is needed! This is a very big deal, because your ballot depends on where you live, as well as your party in primary elections. Every 2 years when we vote for our ANC representatives, that’s 296 different ballots for 296 different ANC single-member districts. In the past, early voting locations had to either only offer electronic voting or have stacks of paper ballots for every different type of ballot in the city, and on Election Day you would need to go in person to the precinct assigned to your street address in order for your vote to count, because every precinct’s polling place only stocks the ballots for voters registered in that precinct. Now we have the technology to enable voters to vote from any polling place!
Q: Wait, why is this such a big deal?
A: If the roll-out of as-needed ballot printing goes well during this primary election, this means that in future elections DC BOE won’t need to print enormous stacks of ballots before voting begins. This means a bunch of unvoted ballots aren’t lying around requiring protection from tampering and a bunch of unused ballots don’t become wasted paper at the end of the election. And most importantly, having to go to your precinct’s polling place in order to vote could become a thing of the past. This isn’t guaranteed to happen, but now that we have the technology all that’s standing in our way is political will. In future elections you could go vote on your lunch break at whatever polling place is closest to your work! You could vote at whatever polling place you happen to pass by on your walk home from your most recent hookup, if casual sex is a thing again by then! The future is ours!
Q: Ok cool, let’s get back to this election. Who should I vote for?
A: I’m talking to you in my capacity as an election worker, so I can’t answer that. Lots of other people would be happy to tell you who to vote for! Google “2020 endorsements [name of favorite local political group]” as a starting point to get informed on what’s at stake on the ballot this election.
Editor’s Note: We’re working on something to help you 730DC readers with this, like, say tomorrow?
Q: What’s the best way to commit voter fraud?
A: DC BOE has many things in place to prevent us from even accidentally allowing an individual to vote more than once or to tamper with others’ ballots, so your best bet is probably to hire a screenwriter. May I recommend the geniuses behind underrated action classic Live Free or Die Hard, where the climactic finale takes place in a nondescript government data services building in suburban Maryland. You could also consider engaging in some old-fashioned voter suppression I guess? But, like, please don’t.
Q: Do they pay election workers a living wage?
A: $15/hour plus paid training!
Q: Being an election worker sounds awesome! How do I become one?
A: Hell yes being an election worker is awesome! Apply here.
Q: How can I thank you for your election worker service?
A: Thank me in any/all of the following ways!
- Vote!
- Share this blog post and encourage others to vote!
- When you’re wearing a mask in public, make sure it covers your nose and mouth! And don’t touch the nose or mouth parts of your mask unless you’re going to wash your hands immediately thereafter!!
- Be considerate and kind with every service worker you encounter, during the pandemic and for the rest of your life :)
