‘It’s Ridiculous’: States Struggle To Accommodate COVID-Positive Voters

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After she contracted COVID-19, Linda Harrison, right, was able to cast an emergency ballot in Texas’ primary with the help of an intern and a doctor’s note. Her husband, Vernon Webb, was also sick and wasn’t able to vote.





Courtesy Linda Harrison and Vernon Webb



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Courtesy Linda Harrison and Vernon Webb





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In Texas, vote-by-mail is only available to people over 65, not present in the state on election day, or who have a disability.





Suzanne Cordeiro/AFP via Getty Images



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Suzanne Cordeiro/AFP via Getty Images




In Texas, vote-by-mail is only available to people over 65, not present in the state on election day, or who have a disability.


Suzanne Cordeiro/AFP via Getty Images

Many states have tried to increase access and availability of voting to accommodate the pandemic’s uncertainties.

«All 50 states have done something to address elections in the time of COVID, said Wendy Underhill, director of the Elections and Redistricting program for the National Conference of State Legislatures.

A handful of states have gone to all-mail elections. Many — Including Texas — have expanded early-voting. Two-thirds of states don’t require any excuse to get an absentee ballot. Of the 16 that do require it, some are exploring removing the impediment. Missouri, Connecticut, Delaware and others will allow mail-in ballots from anyone that wants one this year. Many of the others still requiring accepted excuses to vote absentee are fighting in court over it.

While some have moved to increase access to safer voting, Texas is one that hasn’t.

«Unfortunately Texas has thrown up roadblock after roadblock for people like Linda. They have doubled down on the type of voter suppression we’ve been seeing for years, said Mimi Marziani, president of the Texas Civil Rights Project.

It sued so that Harrison and Vernon Webb — her sick husband — could vote without a doctor’s note. They lost, which is why Katya Ehresman feverishly worked to cast Linda Harrison’s ballot.

«So the question is whether we’re ready? No, said Nate Persily, co-director of the Stanford-MIT Project on Healthy Elections.

Elections officials need more money and more help to pull this election off. While COVID-positive voters may pose specific challenges to localities in some states, they are just the tip of the iceberg.

«The United States is confronting the largest challenge to its election infrastructure in our nation’s history. And we are trying to switch the way tens of millions of Americans vote with just four months of preparation, he said.

Back in Texas — where 16 million are registered to vote — an intern fought to ensure one vote got counted.

When she arrived at the county elections office Katya Ehresman had 11 minutes to spare. She grasped the ballot — wrapped in a t-shirt because she didn’t have gloves — in an outstretched hand.

«Hi, mail-in ballot? Mail-in ballot, she said navigating to the proper line. When she finally reached a clerk, she explained the situation and gave a warning.

«This is an emergency ballot, so I don’t have the ID or anything. It was someone with COVID that touched it so i would be careful, she said.

With four minutes to spare, the clerks accepted it.

Linda Harrison was only able to vote because she got a doctor’s note. But her husband Vernon Webb was unable to get out of bed most of that week and couldn’t cast a ballot.

«The fact that I kept at it and kept at it, Harrison said, «is the only reason I got to send my ballot in.

With the November election coming and no end in sight for COVID, thousands of people could be in their shoes.