[EL] Open letter from public health and election experts

Thu Jun 18 11:03:17 PDT 2020

In response to Prof. Richman, I agree that maintaining some level of in-person voting is vital, but I don’t think its realistic to expect that all ordinary polling locations will be maintained, for a couple of reasons.

1) As Prof. Kousser points out, recruitment of a new generation of poll worker, while ABSOLUTELY important, may not be as easy at it seems.

2) Some states and local jurisdictions may not have access to their traditional polling locations — assisted living facilities and schools most notably. It may be possible for states to require continued access to these facilities, but I’m skeptical that this will be legally or politically feasible.

3) It may not be financially possible, or even administratively wise, to maintain historical levels of precinct place voting when absentee balloting increases tenfold, as it has in a number of primary states. The funding just isn’t there.

So I agree completely with what Professor Richman argues in principle, but in practice, I think states and local jurisdictions, IF they will engage in a process of precinct consolidation, need to engage in the practice as soon as possible and give voters, campaigns, and mobilization organizations as much advance warning as possible so as to minimize confusion and avoid voter disenfranchisement.

---
Paul Gronke
Professor, Reed College
Director, Early Voting Information Center
http://earlyvoting.net

General Inquiries: Laura Swann swannla at reed.edu

Media Inquiries: Kevin Myers myersk at reed.edu

> On Jun 18, 2020, at 9:58 AM, Kousser, Thad <tkousser at mail.ucsd.edu> wrote:
> 
> Prof. Richman raises the very important question of protecting vulnerable poll workers.  Indeed, as the national survey on elections under COVID that co-authors and I conducted shows (https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6mb7764n <https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6mb7764n>, see p.13), only 34.6% of respondents would feel comfortable working at a polling place that did not practice social distancing.  That number increases 48.3% when the policing place does adhere to social distancing.
> 
> But, perhaps surprisingly, recruiting a new generation of poll workers may be difficult, because younger respondents are just as likely as senior citizens to voice their discomfort with working at a polling place with no social distancing.  When we broke down the responses to this question by age groups in a parallel survey <https://drive.google.com/file/d/10EmINSJaqKwc48qEKpyxexrGF8R6TnUX/view> we conducted in California, we found few differences across age groups in this question. (We will soon conduct this age analysis for our national survey.) For all age groups, social distancing practices increased comfort levels. The consistency in responses is not because all age groups view the election similarly; older voters were significantly more likely to prefer to cast their own ballot by mail, as the next question shows.  But it does indicate that quickly recruiting a new generation to work in polling places will be difficult, unless those polling places have strong social distancing practices.
> 
> California Survey:
> <Outlook-aplgm3wj.png>
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> Thad Kousser, Professor and Department Chair
> Department of Political Science, UC San Diego
> 9500 Gilman Drive
> La Jolla, CA 92093-0521
> 858-534-3239
> http://polisci.ucsd.edu <http://polisci.ucsd.edu/>
> 
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> From: Law-election <law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu <mailto:law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu>> on behalf of Richman, Jesse T. <JRichman at odu.edu <mailto:JRichman at odu.edu>>
> Sent: Thursday, June 18, 2020 7:58 AM
> To: Michael Latner <mlatner at calpoly.edu <mailto:mlatner at calpoly.edu>>; law-election at department-lists.uci.edu <mailto:law-election at department-lists.uci.edu> <law-election at department-lists.uci.edu <mailto:law-election at department-lists.uci.edu>>
> Subject: Re: [EL] Open letter from public health and election experts
> 
> This letter is missing some crucial elements in my opinion.
> 
> In order to minimize voter confusion and to keep lines short it is essential that states and localities maintain all ordinary in-person polling locations.  Closing locations because of the pandemic generates unnecessary confusion, makes planning more difficult, and increases the risk of catastrophic lines.  This should be resisted.
> 
> States and localities need to begin the process of recruiting and training a new generation of poll workers, as the older individuals who often work the polls are among the most vulnerable.
> 
> It pays insufficient attention to the age distribution of vulnerability to the pandemic.  While a full vote-by-mail roll out might be preferable, a minimum point of departure should be full vote by mail for registered voters over 60 or 65.
> 
> Jesse Richman
> Associate Professor
> Old Dominion University
> From: Law-election <law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu <mailto:law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu>> on behalf of Michael Latner <mlatner at calpoly.edu <mailto:mlatner at calpoly.edu>>
> Sent: Wednesday, June 17, 2020 8:36 PM
> To: law-election at department-lists.uci.edu <mailto:law-election at department-lists.uci.edu> <law-election at department-lists.uci.edu <mailto:law-election at department-lists.uci.edu>>
> Subject: Re: [EL] Open letter from public health and election experts
> 
> Apologies the link to the letter did not paste:
> https://secure.everyaction.com/9pz2rlM7LEaei2oBf-DmbQ2 <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://nam03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https*3A*2F*2Fsecure.everyaction.com*2F9pz2rlM7LEaei2oBf-DmbQ2&data=02*7C01*7Cjrichman*40odu.edu*7Cbdd72006e78c44db96ba08d8131fd7ee*7C48bf86e811a24b8a8cb368d8be2227f3*7C0*7C0*7C637280374772310246&sdata=tNQY*2B5kTlR7ycGLL15KY7RMVYEJZlkk*2FdNWb3FueoyU*3D&reserved=0__;JSUlJSUlJSUlJSUlJSUl!!Mih3wA!QYfiQpjprL51eFXOe5qi0NTxZOAgt-u5WaBcE-A_zqj-USfShDc6alTu659pQAZoA8U$>
> Thanks again!
> ML
> 
> From: "mlatner at calpoly.edu <mailto:mlatner at calpoly.edu>" <mlatner at calpoly.edu <mailto:mlatner at calpoly.edu>>
> Date: Wednesday, June 17, 2020 at 5:14 PM
> To: "law-election at department-lists.uci.edu <mailto:law-election at department-lists.uci.edu>" <law-election at department-lists.uci.edu <mailto:law-election at department-lists.uci.edu>>
> Subject: Open letter from public health and election experts
> 
> Dear Election-Law listserv recipients,
> I am writing to invite you to sign on to an open letter from public health, political science and election law professionals and organizations nationwide urging Congress and states to take action on ensuring a safe and secure national election amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.
> The open letter is not in support of any candidate nor party, but seeks to keep voters as safe as possible while exercising their right to vote by clarifying the public health need for science-based solutions such as online voter registration, early voting, vote-by-mail, and strategic polling placement. It also aims to spotlight the necessity for voting reforms that ensure equitable access to the vote, especially for marginalized communities facing compounded burdens of unaccountable governance and policies and longstanding barriers to the ballot.
> An open statement that brings together experts in the fields of health, political and election science, and public administration can make a powerful evidence-based case for these critical measures. Our hope is that this letter and its use puts the scientific voice to work to bolster the expertise and experience of voting access advocates as the forefront of this work. I sincerely hope you will consider adding your name as a signatory to the letter.
> Thursday, June 24, is the deadline for signatures to be part of the initial release. Let me know if you have any questions, and I look forward to hearing from you soon.
> See the list of hundreds of experts <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://nam03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https*3A*2F*2Fdocs.google.com*2Fspreadsheets*2Fd*2F1iVBoUC5m2KddVfWZf_Pz4UJdDaaXX3hIcXpGyKscvME*2Fedit*3Fusp*3Dsharing&data=02*7C01*7Cjrichman*40odu.edu*7Cbdd72006e78c44db96ba08d8131fd7ee*7C48bf86e811a24b8a8cb368d8be2227f3*7C0*7C0*7C637280374772320245&sdata=*2F1oJU765b*2FH4DL6ZveZFgbp0hbnFqC*2FD*2Fld24MOHwBs*3D&reserved=0__;JSUlJSUlJSUlJSUlJSUlJSUlJSUlJQ!!Mih3wA!QYfiQpjprL51eFXOe5qi0NTxZOAgt-u5WaBcE-A_zqj-USfShDc6alTu659pSwUty-M$> who have already signed the letter.
> Sincerely,
> Professor Michael Latner
> Kendall Science Fellow, Center for Science and Democracy, Union of Concerned Scientists
> Faculty Scholar, Institute for Advanced Technology and Public Policy
> Political Science Department
> California Polytechnic State University
> @mlatner
> Mikelatner.com <http://mikelatner.com/>
> 
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