[EL] Voter ID req. vs. mask requirement?

Thu Oct 29 15:58:55 PDT 2020

A quick follow up to Justin’s nice summary: the 5th Circuit stayed Judge
Pulliam’s order in Texas a few hours ago.

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/politics/texas/article/U-S-district-judge-rules-Texas-voters-must-wear-15681216.php

So voters in Texas won’t be required to wear masks at the polls after all.

I think Vlad’s observation is a nice one, and another reminder that Burdick
is likely a dead letter at this point.

Doug

On Thu, Oct 29, 2020 at 4:46 PM Douglas, Joshua A. <joshuadouglas at uky.edu>
wrote:

> There has been at least one instance (in Fort Lauderdale) where voters
> were turned away from the polls for failing to wear a mask (they said for
> medical reasons); police were called; and then they were eventually allowed
> to vote. More here:
> https://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/politics/elections/fl-ne-police-called-on-maskless-voters-coral-ridge-20201019-acudv726fjcmjnnloejexdvpaq-story.html
>
> <https://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/politics/elections/fl-ne-police-called-on-maskless-voters-coral-ridge-20201019-acudv726fjcmjnnloejexdvpaq-story.html>
> Four Broward voters refused to wear masks but were allowed to vote anyway
> <https://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/politics/elections/fl-ne-police-called-on-maskless-voters-coral-ridge-20201019-acudv726fjcmjnnloejexdvpaq-story.html>
> www.sun-sentinel.com
>
> ------------------------------
> *From:* Law-election <law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu> on
> behalf of Pildes, Rick <rick.pildes at nyu.edu>
> *Sent:* Thursday, October 29, 2020 6:41 PM
> *To:* Jessie Allen <jessieallen101 at gmail.com>; Kogan, Vladimir <
> kogan.18 at osu.edu>
> *Cc:* Election Law Listserv <law-election at uci.edu>
> *Subject:* Re: [EL] Voter ID req. vs. mask requirement?
>
> CAUTION: External Sender
>
> Agree with Jessie – it might be unconstitutional to condition voting on
> willingness to wear a mask, but even if it is constitutional, the last
> thing state officials want is confrontations at the polls over this.
>
>
>
> *From:* Law-election [mailto:law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu]
> *On Behalf Of *Jessie Allen
> *Sent:* Thursday, October 29, 2020 6:25 PM
> *To:* Kogan, Vladimir <kogan.18 at osu.edu>
> *Cc:* Election Law Listserv <law-election at uci.edu>
> *Subject:* Re: [EL] Voter ID req. vs. mask requirement?
>
>
>
> I think it is pretty clear that it is a political choice not to require
> masks -- not a constitutional interpretation.  You are right that the
> burdens are comparatively trivial -- especially in states where voters
> could choose to avoid the polls altogether and vote by mail.  Iin
> Pennsylvania masks are not required at the polls but they are in churches
> and synagogues, and worshipers probably can't pray by mail.  State
> officials have apparently made the calculation that the political
> polarization over mask wearing is so great that enforcing mask orders at
> the polls would risk disruptions that outweigh the health risks. That is
> certainly a questionable public health result, especially for poll workers,
> but I suppose understandable.
>
> Jessie Allen
>
>
>
> On Thu, Oct 29, 2020 at 6:06 PM Kogan, Vladimir <kogan.18 at osu.edu> wrote:
>
> My wife is in the process of completing her training to be a poll worker,
> and part of the training discusses what to do if a voter shows up and
> insists on voting without a mask. The training says to encourage the voter
> to cast his/her ballot outside curbside — but stresses that, if the voter
> insists, he/she must be allowed to cast a ballot inside at the voting
> location. Our secretary of state has stated
> <https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Furldefense.proofpoint.com%2Fv2%2Furl%3Fu%3Dhttps-3A__radio.wosu.org_post_ohio-2Drequires-2Dface-2Dmasks-2Dpolling-2Dplaces-2Dwhat-2Dhappens-2Dif-2Dvoter-2Drefuses-23stream_0%26d%3DDwMFaQ%26c%3DslrrB7dE8n7gBJbeO0g-IQ%26r%3Dv3oz9bpMizgP1T8KwLv3YT-_iypxaOkdtbkRAclgHRk%26m%3DZRPvitxSCofAH4f8HjhjPh_Qd6dRjYg7CfMWuptgIzE%26s%3D64NhiOA3onfXwU9Bi7W4MizjYTRo9yom9Ija6eBTRvM%26e%3D&data=04%7C01%7Cjoshuadouglas%40uky.edu%7Cc385f3f86e8043cf16ff08d87c5bf037%7C2b30530b69b64457b818481cb53d42ae%7C0%7C0%7C637396081601824977%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=QsuH5hlxmzHrEQyz1SEfsb9zE9O74koEUSTFE0Auw3Y%3D&reserved=0>
> that “voters are guaranteed the right to vote in the U.S. Constitution, so
> he has to allow them into the polls if they insist.”
>
>
>
> Ohio is a strict (non-photo) voter ID law state, so my wife noted the
> interesting asymmetry here . It seems like one could make a strong argument
> that, under *Crawford v. Marion County Election Board*, requiring a mask
> as a precondition for voting in person would be entirely reasonable. The
> state interest in limiting the spread of a deadly virus seems at least as
> weighty as the interests offered in *Crawford*. And the empirical
> evidence for the effectiveness of the policy is also stronger — masks are
> at least as effective in reducing COVID risk as voter IDs are reducing risk
> of fraud, etc. The burdens, on the other hand, seem quite trivial. Masks
> will be provided and voters who don’t want to wear a mask can vote by mail
> or curbside.
>
>
>
> Certainly, there is a small number of voters with medical conditions
> and/or other trauma for whom wearing a mask is particularly burdensome. But
> Justice Scalia’s concurrence in *Crawford *argues that the
> *Anderson-Burdick* balancing test is about the burden for the *average*
> voter, not the burdens faced by a small, select subset. A mask requirement,
> like Indiana’s photo-identification law, would be “generally applicable,
> nondiscriminatory voting regulation, and our precedents refute the view
> that individual impacts are relevant to determining the severity of the
> burden it imposes.”
>
>
>
> I’m curious anyone has thought/written about this, or whether this has
> been raised in any litigation this year?
>
>
>
> Thanks!
>
>
>
> Vlad Kogan
>
>
>
> [image: The Ohio State University]
> *Vladimir Kogan*, Associate Professor and Director of Undergraduate
> Studies
> *Department of Political Science*
>
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>
> kogan.18 at osu.edu
>
> [image: Twitter icon]@vkoganpolisci
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> --
>
> Jessie Allen
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