Kira Learner and Indrani Basu are writing for us today in the midst of an epidemic, American poll workers risked their health to handle the election:
On November 5, two days after Election Day, an employee went home early in the morning to the Election Board office in Onondaka County, New York. According to Election Commissioner Dustin Sarni, he felt exhausted and blamed the long changes.
A week later he was admitted to the hospital, tested for Covit-19, and was diagnosed with the virus. Meanwhile, unbeknownst to other employees, the virus spread through the office where employees work in long shifts to count votes that were not available before New York’s certification deadline. About 200 staff and volunteers who counted the missing votes were sent home on November 13 and instructed to undergo a test. In total, 12 employees tested positive.
“We had almost everyone in the office last week before Friday the 13th,” Jorney said. “Of course it happened on Friday the 13th.”
Journey and other commissioners closed their offices, suspended the week’s vote count and told New York they would miss the Nov. 28 certification deadline. He hoped the crisis would be avoided as they managed an election in the midst of an epidemic.
“This is what we are afraid of, and it happened,” he said.
For local election officials, the 2020 election was guaranteed to be a struggle. Voters registered with the Covid 19 epidemic demanded non-voting votes, forcing election officials to adapt to unprecedented elections. Officers must hire additional staff, locate warehouses and other places to store ballots, and obtain security equipment to ensure their employees are healthy and safe.
Despite their best efforts to prevent the spread of the virus, dozens of polling workers and election officials across the country have tested positive for Covid 19, in most cases linking it to election day. Not clear. According to a votebeat analysis of local reports, there were Covid 19 cases among election workers in at least nine districts in five states before election day, and at least 24 districts in 14 states reported favorable cases among election workers.
These cases are the only ones that have received media coverage and can detect an election campaign. Considering the severity of the virus, the actual number of such cases is very high.
Read more about the report by Kira Lerner and Indrani Basu: In the midst of the epidemic, American poll workers risked their health to handle the election
