Name: Lehigh Valley voters may want to bring their own pen, gloves to vote in coronavirus-plagued primary
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Lehigh Valley voters may want to bring their own pen, gloves to vote in coronavirus-plagued primary

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AdvertisementBy The Morning CallMay 04, 2020 at 7:12 pmHealth officials across the country are asking residents to wear masks when they go into public, but Pennsylvania voters may want to bring some extra supplies when they go to cast a vote in the June 2 primary.In Northampton County, where citizens cast their ballot on a touch screen machine, Chief Registrar Amy Cozze is encouraging voters to bring their own gloves. In Lehigh County, Chief Clerk of Elections Tim Benyo is advising residents to bring their own pen to mark their paper ballot.AdvertisementBoth requests are intended to limit the spread of the novel coronavirus, which has already delayed Pennsylvania’s primary and presents a unique challenge as state officials try to keep the democratic process working in the middle of a pandemic.Rather than have thousands of residents gather in polling places to vote, Gov. Tom Wolf encouraged Pennsylvanians to cast a mail-in ballot during a Monday news conference. Nearly 1 million voters have already applied for the ballots, an “unprecedented” volume of requests due to expanded eligibility for mail-in ballots during the coronavirus outbreak, officials said.AdvertisementWolf and other state election officials urged voters who haven’t yet requested a ballot to do so, acknowledging that the flood of ballot requests is expected to strain county election offices where staffers are furiously working to process requests.“That’s a big, huge increase, and that’s a huge increase in the work that’s going to be required at the county election offices all around the state,” Wolf said during a news conference Monday afternoon.At least 47,000 ballot requests have come from voters in Lehigh and Northampton counties, according to estimates from local election officials, who say they’ve mailed out a combined 35,000 ballots so far.By comparison, Northampton County processed 1,668 absentee ballots under the more restrictive ballot rules in the 2016 primary, the last presidential election year. Lehigh had 2,715 absentee ballots in that primary.This is the first election in which any Pennsylvania voter can cast their ballot by mail without needing a reason why they can’t make it to the polls, a change that was part of a broader election bill signed into law last fall, long before COVID-19 cases appeared in Pennsylvania.The county election offices in the Lehigh Valley and across the state will receive state assistance to meet the growing workload: $13 million will be distributed to help counties with costs related to staffing, equipment, protective gear, voter outreach or other needs related to the high volume of mail-in ballots, according to Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar.While more people will vote by mail, in-person polling places still will be open, though some precincts will move to a new location. State officials will distribute “precinct infection-protection kits,” Boockvar said, which will include masks, gloves, hand sanitizer, floor-marking tape and other sanitizing supplies.State officials urged voters to check the location of their polling site and, if possible, vote by mail instead. Voters have until 5 p.m. May 26 , and those ballots must be returned by 8 p.m. Election Day.AdvertisementAs the pandemic spread, state lawmakers approved a bill in late March to delay the date of the primary election from April 28 until June 2. Officials postponed voting after county election officials reported .In Lehigh County, polling site locations likely won’t be finalized for another two weeks, Chief Clerk of Elections Tim Benyo said. The location of 15 polling places remains up in the air after previous hosts pulled out. Some are senior living centers, including the county-owned nursing home Cedarbrook, that risk exposing residents to the disease if they open to the public, Benyo said.One of the biggest problems in securing locations, Benyo said, is fear that potential host locations that were shuttered due to the state’s stay-at-home order could be fined if they reopened to let in voters. Wolf said during the news conference that host sites for polling precincts would not be punished if they opened to allow voting.“When they said that, it made me very happy," Benyo said. “I could hear a lot of county officials cheering in my head.”Northampton County Chief Registrar Amy Cozze said Tuesday that Northampton County is not facing issues with securing locations. The county lost two of its largest polling sites - Lehigh University and Gracedale - in March, but the county has been able to find replacement locations.But getting people to work those polling places may still prove a challenge. Lehigh County normally hires about 1,000 poll workers for the primary, but about 200 people dropped out from last year, a major dropoff from a typical year, Benyo said. Poll workers tend to be older adults, a demographic at greater risk for COVID-19.AdvertisementHe’s reached out to CareerLink to see if it can supply workers, but he has not ruled out calling in the National Guard as some counties have considered.“It’s in the back of my mind,” he said. “They are folks from the community. They wouldn’t be in uniform. It would be nice to have younger people, too.”Cozze said Northampton County is short only 20 poll workers of the 900 or so poll workers it needs. While she doesn’t think calling in the National Guard to man polling stations will be necessary, she didn’t rule it out either. Still, voters should expect a different looking staff at the polls.“As we encourage our older and more high-risk election workers to sit this one out, we have found younger and more low-risk citizens to take on these responsibilities during the pandemic,” she said.Northampton County officials said last week that anyone with election-related business will be allowed in the county courthouse in Easton beginning May 11. As of Tuesday morning, Cozze said more than 27,000 mail-in ballot applications have been received and that about 26,000 mail-in ballots have been sent out.Benyo did not have exact figures for Lehigh County on Monday afternoon, but estimated his office received about 22,000 requests and mailed out about 15,000 ballots.AdvertisementWolf urged those voting by mail to submit their request quickly, to give county officials as much time as possible to send out ballots. Voters can file a mail-in ballot application by going online to .Voters who cast a ballot in person are urged to take the same precautions they would for going to a public place, including wearing a mask and maintaining social distance as much as possible. Wolf said decisions about whether voters who decline to cover their faces would be allowed inside polling places will be left up to counties.DailyGet top headlines from The Morning Call delivered weekday afternoons. &gt; Northampton County Executive Lamont McClure said in a statement Monday that no voter would be turned away at the polls.Lehigh County officials said rules would be determined by the places that agree to host polling places, but Benyo added that police have been hesitant to issue tickets to people who refuse to cooperate.“We always provide poll workers with the guidance that they are guests in those polling places and as long as it’s not in conflict with state laws that the polling place is the one making the rules,” Benyo said.AdvertisementBetween the surge in write-in ballots and the uncontested presidential primaries, both Benyo and Cozze were optimistic that lines at the polls wouldn’t get out of hand June 2, even with social distancing rules.“If we’re in the same place in November, it will be of great concern,” Benyo said.Washington correspondent Laura Olson can be reached at 202-780-9540 or lolson@mcall.com. Morning Call reporter Tom Shortell can be reached at 610-820-6168 or . Advertisement

AdvertisementBy The Morning CallMay 04, 2020 at 7:12 pmHealth officials across the country are asking residents to wear masks when they go into public, but Pennsylvania voters may want to bring some extra supplies when they go to cast a vote in the June 2 primary.In Northampton County, where citizens cast their ballot on a touch screen machine, Chief Registrar Amy Cozze is encouraging voters to bring their own gloves. In Lehigh County, Chief Clerk of Elections Tim Benyo is advising residents to bring their own pen to mark their paper ballot.AdvertisementBoth requests are intended to limit...

Lehigh Valley voters may want to bring their own pen, gloves to vote in coronavirus-plagued primary

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