Early voting has already created long, long lines in many states and with just 11 days left until the November election, many states and cities have taken safety measures to protect voters and polling workers from being exposed to the coronavirus.
But polling stations are still prone to “mass gatherings,” the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned in a statement issued Friday that measures to prevent the spread of Kovid-19 could be improved.
The CDC released in September a statewide primary in Delaware based on the latest advice on the survey from the experiences of 522 voting employees.
The guidelines issued by the agency in June recommended various ways to reduce congestion at polling stations, including absentee voting and increased polling hours.
To reduce the transmission of the disease, the CDC also recommended placing physical barriers between voting machines; Keeping machines away from each other; Indicating a distance of 6 feet with signs or floor marks for those waiting in line to vote; Designated separate entrances and exits; Assistance to sick voters for voting workers – use of protective gear – masks, face shawls, gloves and gowns; And allowing voting for the sick.
“Sick voters can vote to reduce transmission without limiting voting rights and can vote while maintaining voter safety,” the report said.
But in Alabama, where curbside voting was allowed, the state’s attorney general ordered it to be stopped, and on Wednesday the U.S. The Supreme Court upheld the ban.
A new survey of Delaware poll workers did not say whether any of Kovid’s cases were linked to polling stations. These questions only include workers’ observations about conditions and systems at 99 polling stations in the state.
The Delaware survey found that most workers and voters wore masks, but did not always use them to cover both mouth and nose. Voters were less cautious than voting. About 73 percent said they rarely or never mistakenly saw other polling workers wearing masks. But only 54 per cent of the workers surveyed said they had seldom or never seen an op-ed mask used by voters.
“To strengthen the effectiveness of masks during the next election, more messages on the use of appropriate masks may be needed,” the report said.
The CDC suggested that providing masks for voters “could justify adopting individual prevention methods.”
Voters were even more likely to vote than those using hand sanitizers.
Of the 522 workers surveyed, 19 were in contact with a voter who was ill with or without a covid diagnosis, the report said. Fifteen of the 19 said they wore masks during contact, but no one wore the other protective gear recommended by the CDC for such an encounter: face shields, robes, gloves. The survey indicates that workers received “limited training” in the use of gear.
Poll workers usually face multiple risks: many are elderly with health problems, making Covid particularly susceptible to serious illness if contracted. And they come into close contact with many people on election days, often closer than the 6-foot “social distance” recommended for minimizing virus transmission.
Continued efforts to recruit young polling workers could reduce the proportion of workers at risk of serious cases of covid, the report said.
Meanwhile, the CDC offered a list of measures to help reduce risk for voters: go to -f-peak time, like noon; Observe the voter line from your car and join when the line is short; Fill out the required registration form ahead of time and review the sample ballot at home to reduce the time spent at the polling station; And take your own black ink pen or stylus for use on touch-screen voting machines.
