Everything is different this year because of the coronavirus pandemic and Election Day protocols are no exception.
Voting centers will still be open, but poll workers will mandate six feet of social distance between voters and offer hand sanitizer as well as alternative options for filling out ballots, like curbside voting, in order to make in-person voting as safe as possible, according to the Santa Clara County Health Department.
“We plan to have staff and a few voters at a time,” said Chipo Mulenga, the communications specialist for the Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters. “If we happen to have a line that is 20 feet long, we can only have three voters.”
Mulenga said that even though voting procedures will be a bit different this year because of the pandemic, voting centers will try to work around different situations.
“Voters will be asked to wear a mask, but if they refuse we will not turn them away and will instead ask them to vote outside at the curb, as we do have curbside voting available,” she said.
Mulenga said that all staff will be wearing masks and gloves and will offer voters hand sanitizer and disinfectant wipes.
“We will be enforcing a social distancing requirement of six feet for voters who come inside,” Mulenga said.
The voting center on the first floor of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Library will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Election Day. On-campus ballot drop boxes can be found outside buildings such as the library, Dudley Moorhead Hall and Campus Village Housing, according to the San Jose State website.
Mulenga said everything inside voting centers that a voter might touch would be sanitized by staff members, such as any touch screens or surfaces.
As for how many people will be allowed inside at one time, Mulenga said it depends on the size of the specific voting center and the ability for people to social distance.
She added that all in-person voter requirements, such as providing identification and casting your vote during operating hours, are the same as before. The only difference is the health regulations to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
SJSU political science senior Anthony Yoshida said he already voted about two weeks ago and dropped off his ballot at his local city hall in Pacifica.
“It’s important to vote in every election because all of these decisions affect you in the long run,” Yoshida said. “There are basic rights we have that are at risk, like gay marriage and COVID itself is not being managed by the current administration.”
Yoshida said that people who can vote should because the outcome of this election affects everyone in the U.S.
“If you have the luxury to vote, then do it because there are a lot of people who want to vote that can't,” Yoshida said. “It doesn't just affect you, it affects millions of people who need help with things like getting access to health care and so on.”
Yoshida said people should vote and that in-person voting doesn’t pose a threat if voters take the proper health precautions to minimize the risk of spreading COVID-19.
For biomedical engineering junior Kevin Thai, this was his first year voting and he joined the 91 million other Americans who voted across the nation, according to a CNN article posted on Sunday.
Thai said he would have voted by mail even if there wasn’t a pandemic because it was what he felt was the easiest option.
“It was convenient because I didn't plan to go in person at that moment in time,” Thai said in a Discord chat. “Plus the ballot was already at my house.”
He said he wasn’t concerned about contracting COVID-19 if he voted in person but that he simply preferred to vote by mail because of the overall convenience.
However, if an individual experiencing COVID-19 symptoms made a mistake on their ballot and had to go to a vote center in person, Thai said making the vote count would be worth the risk of catching the virus.
He also stressed the importance of voting this year because there’s a lot at stake for both parties.
“It's important to the Democrats because this is their only chance to get President Trump out of office,” Thai said. “And it's important to the Republicans, or right-leaning folks, because they don't like Joe's tax plan and/or fear more gun control.”
He believes this became an important election and if he were to vote in any particular election – it would be this one.
