Brian Witte/AP Photo/
Annie Williams, right, stands in line at one of six in-person voting centers in Baltimore on Tuesday.
From waiting for mail-in ballots that never arrived and long lines at consolidated polling stations, to social distancing measures and the aftermath of protests against police brutality, Americans trying to participate in June 2’s primary election had to overcome a unique set of battles.
Electorates in seven disparate states—from Montana to Pennsylvania—and the District of Columbia went to the polls on Tuesday, but their voters encountered similar obstacles. Although some locations posed more challenges than others, no one was exempt from the difficulties. Even the ACLU’s Voting Rights Project managing attorney Sarah Brannon waited for five hours to cast her ballot in D.C., after her requested absentee ballot never arrived.
“Election officials don’t have the resources to make the switch, and because of the concerns about coronavirus, the voting is going slower; they’re spacing people out more. I think they were doing a very efficient job, but it still does make the process slower,” Brannon says. “It’s an issue of staffing, it’s an issue of access, it’s an issue of do they have the supplies to efficiently print all of the [absentee] ballots.”
Voting by mail can be a safer alternative to in-person voting during the coronavirus pandemic and is available in varying degrees across the United States. Most states, however, only have a small percentage of people taking advantage of that option. Except for five states where there are universal vote-by-mail elections, and California, which is in transition to that model, traditional in-person voting is how most Americans participate in the democratic process.
Absentee ballots not arriving in time and the consolidation of polling places appeared to be the main reasons for the long lines yesterday.
Making traditional voting the secondary option requires planning down to the smallest details, as such details can have large consequences. Election officials have to coordinate with printers to create the ballots and special-sized envelopes; the ballots have to be mailed out to voters, which requires cooperation with the Postal Service; and officials must decide how ballots can be returned, whether through the mail, handed back in-person, or both.
Many states’ requirements on these issues have become more flexible, due to the efforts of lawmakers, as well as litigation from groups including the ACLU, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, the Southern Poverty Law Center, and Common Cause. But the kinks were still being worked out on Tuesday.
In Indiana, where there was no-excuse mail-in voting, meaning everyone could vote by mail, some counties allowed voters to drop off their ballots at physical polling locations while others only accepted them at the county courthouses, said Julia Vaughn, policy director for Common Cause Indiana, during an Election Day media call. Absentee ballots that were returned in person were also only accepted until noon, while in-person voting continued until 6 p.m.
“We’re advocating to policymakers to make some changes and educating voters on the rules. We really encourage policymakers to make these decisions sooner rather than later as we head into the fall,” Vaughn said.
The mail-in-ballot mix-ups were even more confusing for voters in Baltimore, where voters in the 12th City Council District received ballots meant for the 14th District. This meant that their options for the presidential primary and mayor weren’t affected, but their local city council official was, says Joanne Antoine, executive director of Common Cause Maryland.
Election officials tried to fix the problem with a post online instructing 12th District voters to go to the polls to cast provisional ballots, but if their mail-in votes had already been counted, then their corrected provisional ballot would not be able to be processed.
It is unclear how many people were affected by the absentee ballot error, Antoine says. As of publication, the state election board had not commented.
Absentee ballots not arriving in time and the consolidation of polling places appeared to be the main reasons for the long lines on Tuesday. Common Cause’s election teams saw long lines not just in D.C. but also in the urban centers of the other states holding elections.
Pennsylvania had more than 500 calls on its voter protection hotline, and about half of those were from people trying to find out where to vote, Suzanne Almeida, acting director of Common Cause Pennsylvania, said in the media call. Pittsburgh and Philadelphia had reduced their number of polling locations by about 70 percent, Almeida explained.
In Philadelphia County, the number of polling places was reduced from more than 800 to fewer than 100, Brannon says, which meant many people couldn’t vote in their accustomed neighborhood locations. Additionally, in Philadelphia’s City Center, there was heavy police monitoring following the protests against police brutality. Police closed the roads to cars, and there were reductions to public transportation services.
Making traditional voting the secondary option requires planning down to the smallest details, as such details can have large consequences.
In cities where there were curfews, elected officials waived that requirement for voters who were still waiting in line and election workers and volunteers facilitating the election processes.
There were no reports on primary day that the police or the curfews interfered with voting or that people felt threatened from voting by the police presence. Then again, it is difficult to count the ballots that were never cast. “Presumably it had some negative impact on turnout, for sure,” Brannon says.
Looking at the number of mail ballots that didn’t reach voters, changes to public transportation (specifically in Philadelphia), and comparing this election’s turnout to previous election years will be the way to gauge how June 2’s conditions affected the voting, Brannon adds.
Full results and turnout data, which will be available in the coming days after mail-in ballots can all be counted, will provide the basis for evaluating gaps in election preparedness for the still-upcoming primaries in 11 states and for November’s general election.
“It’s important to ensure that the election officials have the resources available, at their disposal, to learn some lessons from Tuesday and try and improve to make sure voting runs more smoothly in November. The interest in voting is always higher for a general election than it is for a primary,” Brannon says. “We want to make sure that people are able to vote, and they can do that in a manner where they feel safe.”
