Absentee voting’s encore performance

The West Virginia secretary of state’s office is proud to present an encore performance of “Absentee Voting for Everyone,” sponsored by COVID-19 and the U.S. Constitution.

The first run was so popular that it has been revived for the November election. This time around, however, reserving your ticket — excuse us, requesting your ballot — will look a little different.

The Primary Election took a bold, daring approach to attract participants; sending each registered voter an absentee ballot application was a great way to grab voters’ attention and made it convenient to order a ballot. The encore performance has taken a more traditional reservation route; voters interested in voting absentee can complete an application through the Absentee Ballot Application Portal, which goes live on
Aug. 11. It’s not as proactive as sending voters the application, but it’s a massive improvement over what we thought we were getting: Request an application from the county clerk, wait to receive application, fill out application, send application back, receive ballot, fill out ballot and finally send ballot back to the county clerk. The streamlined process is appreciated.

Of course, there for a period, we were concerned absentee voting wasn’t going to make a second appearance. We watched in horror as the primaries in Wisconsin, Georgia and Nevada crashed and burned, run out of town by angry mobs hurling rotten tomatoes. We feared that would be us come November.

For the old-school, voting in person will still be available. Early in-person voting will run from Oct. 21-31 and the polls will be open on Nov. 3. There are certain challenges to in-person voting during a pandemic, though, which is why we hope people will use absentee voting.

First, at in-person voting, voting machines will have to be sanitized after each use. This slows the process down. Second, there will likely be fewer poll workers than usual, because most poll workers are retirees — a very vulnerable population when it comes to the coronavirus — and no one can fault them for prioritizing their health. While voters may only interact with a handful of people when they cast their ballot in person, poll workers will interact with hundreds of people throughout the day, significantly increasing their chance of exposure to COVID-19. And while masks are technically mandatory indoors, there’s always that one person who refuses and puts everyone else at risk.

Fewer poll workers may mean fewer polling locations. With fewer workers in general on top of the sanitizing procedures, the process will be even slower. So far — cross our fingers, knock on wood, etc. — broken voting machines have not been a problem for us. In Georgia’s primary, the combination of fewer poll workers, fewer polling locations, sanitizing procedures and broken machines contributed to voters waiting in line until midnight in some precincts.

We don’t expect it to get that bad here, but time constraints can still be a concern. Even though employers must give employees time to vote, not everyone can afford to stand in line for six hours. Realistically, how many people would be willing to stand in line for more than an hour?

So if you have your heart set on voting in person on Nov. 3, you still have that ability. But every person who votes absentee makes your in-person voting experience easier and safer.