Press release · June 18, 2020

Voter Protection Corps Unveils National Action Plan to Protect In-Person Voting

Release of Keep the Polls Open, a national action plan developed with Carnegie Mellon data scientists to protect in-person voting during the pandemic.

Highlights urgent need to keep polls open after recent election challenges

Washington, D.C.  - In the wake of a series of deeply-disrupted spring elections across the United States, the Voter Protection Corps and leading voter access advocates today released a national action plan to protect in-person voting during the ongoing national public health emergency.

The report,  Keep the Polls Open , developed in partnership with data scientists at Carnegie Mellon University, provides policymakers with concrete steps to protect in-person voting and meet the equal access to voting requirements enshrined in federal law and the U.S. Constitution.

“States and local leaders need to protect our elections with an all-of-the-above approach that includes safe in-person voting or millions of Americans, particularly voters of color and other historically-marginalized groups, will be left on the sidelines in November,” said  Voter Protection Corps Chair Quentin Palfrey . 

Joining Palfrey to release the report were several key national voting rights advocates: former Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson and Chris Hollins, the Clerk in Harris County, Texas (which includes Houston).

The report, built on extensive research into national polling locations and the challenges to in-person voting during spring elections across the country, details four actions state and local officials must take:  protect neighborhood polling places; recruit, train, and protect poll workers; expand early voting; and communicate early and repeatedly that voting is safe .

In the last presidential election, three-quarters of all Americans who cast a ballot—nearly 110 million people—did so in person at an early voting site or an Election Day polling location. Members of historically-marginalized groups, including Black voters, Native American voters, and voters with disabilities use in-person voting at even higher rates.

In this year’s primaries, the report found in-person voting is more at risk in urban areas and that polling closures have exacerbated lines and heightened barriers to voting for the historically-marginalized groups that use in-person voting most heavily. During the March 10 Illinois Primary, Cook County precincts with relocated polling locations saw a 2.3 percent drop in voter turnout compared to locations that were not changed. In the Wisconsin Primary on April 7, while turnout statewide, excluding Milwaukee, dropped just four percent from 2016 levels, turnout in the city of Milwaukee, which reduced polling locations from 180 down to five, dropped 37 percent. During the Pennsylvania primary on June 2, turnout in Philadelphia was down 30 percent from 2016, compared to just five percent in the rest of the state.

“We all have an obligation to ensure that the right to vote is a guarantee, not a hollow promise.   Too many people have sacrificed too much to protect that right and we have to keep fighting for it,”  Governor Patrick said. “Vote by mail is an important part of how we vote during this pandemic.  But, as Georgia’s primary demonstrates, election officials also need to ensure that there are enough safe, accessible polling places available for those who cannot or choose not to vote by mail.”   

“In the midst of a global pandemic it is more important than ever that our state and local leaders take concrete steps to protect in-person voting,” said Secretary Benson. “It is critical there not only be plans in place to protect this access but that efforts are made to communicate the safety and security of in-person voting to every voter.”

“Now is the time to prepare and be clear with the public to protect the right to vote,” said Clerk Hollins. “These common sense recommendations can and should be implemented by election officials across the country –– as we are doing right now in Harris County –– to ensure that in the midst of this pandemic every voter, including those long excluded from the process, can participate safely in the election.”

“Our analysis of tens of thousands of polling locations across the country supports recommendations to help state and local election officials prepare for safe in-person voting and protect the voting rights of all Americans,” said Rayid Ghani, Distinguished Career Professor at the Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy and the Machine Learning Department at Carnegie Mellon University. “In the midst of the ongoing COVID-19 public health crisis, the team at CMU was excited to partner with the Voter Protection Corps to help ensure that all Americans, particularly members of historically marginalized groups, will be able to cast their ballots safely this fall.”

The recommendations in the report are a product of data analysis on over 35,000 polling locations—including a national dataset of over 8,000 early voting locations, and a survey of 27,000 locations across eleven states, including New Hampshire, North Carolina, Texas, and Wisconsin.

You can read  key recommendations  of the report below and the full report by  clicking here .

Keep The Polls Open: Recommendations for State Leaders

1. Protect neighborhood polling places:  As we have seen in recent elections, consolidation creates longer lines, bigger crowds, and higher risks. Local officials must resist the temptation to reduce the number of polling locations and consolidate voting, which disproportionately impacts voters in urban areas. Our analysis suggests that senior buildings and housing represent just 2.2 percent of Election Day locations. These sites should be moved — not closed — so that the total number of polling locations does not go down and neighborhood access is maintained. The vast majority of voting sites are multi-functional locations, the majority controlled by local governments, which may be well adapted to reconfiguration to allow for social distancing in voting. All election officials must begin working now to facilitate social distancing throughout the voting process and must ensure all polling locations have access to cleaning supplies, hand sanitizer, and other protective materials. States and localities should also expand access for curbside voting. 

2. Recruit poll workers, train, and protect them:  No polling locations should be forced to close for a lack of poll workers, but during many spring elections, poll worker shortages exacerbated by COVID-19 have caused drastic reductions in voting sites, particularly in urban areas. State and local officials must begin immediately to increase awareness that poll worker positions are available and to make the case for filling these essential civic roles. States and local jurisdictions should build online portals to allow prospective poll workers to learn about the role and apply online. Counties should establish civic partnership programs like Adopt-a-Precinct, in which community groups, local businesses, and nonprofits recruit a team of poll workers for a specific location. Schools should allow high school and college students to take the day off to serve. Jurisdictions should review rules and relax or eliminate service requirements that bar otherwise qualified individuals from filling shortages. Poll workers need to be properly trained, including through remote training, and provided with proper PPE. Jurisdictions that fail on training and safety will not succeed in filling roles.

3. Expand early voting:  A straightforward way to protect in-person voting and to make socially-distanced voting easier is to spread out the period of time when voters can cast their ballots. Wherever possible, state and counties should expand early voting to include at least the three-week period beginning Monday, October 12. State and local officials should use or seek to expand their authority, wherever possible, to offer morning and evening early voting hours so working Americans have the opportunity to cast their ballots early. Similarly, early voting should be available on both Saturday and Sunday during the final two weekends before the general election. In urban cities and counties, election officials should examine whether they maintain sufficient early voting sites and hours in neighborhoods that might be far from central, downtown voting sites, and offer new sites with expanded hours to ensure maximal access to all. Rural administrators should also look closely at how best to ensure broad access. In many states, local officials already have significant authority to expand hours and increase early voting sites to accommodate residents.

4. Communicate clearly and repeatedly that it’s safe to vote:  Election officials and allies must repeatedly assure voters that any method of voting they choose will be safe and secure. Without a clear message, many voters may choose to stay away from polling places and be unable to vote. All changes in the locations and hours of polling places should be repeatedly and consistently communicated to voters. States also need to begin outreach campaigns to recruit poll workers and let them know that every effort will be made to keep them safe. Failure to clearly communicate to voters will leave a void open to exploitation by those seeking to suppress voting and undermine confidence in the election.

← All news & updates