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What if your polling place is closed on Election Day?
As if the pandemic weren't enough concern for voters, you need to check if your traditional voting place is open. Best advice at this late stage: know exactly where you need to go to either drop off your ballot or vote in person.
OAKLAND, Calif. - As if the pandemic weren't enough concern for voters, you need to check if your traditional voting place is open. Best advice at this late stage: know exactly where you need to go to either drop off your ballot or vote in person.
Here's why. "I usually vote at a polling place, which is near my house which is closed," said Michael Kroll, one of many people who on Monday, delivered their ballot to a voting box outside of the Alameda County Court House in Oakland.
Some voters dropped off their last minute ballots here after finding out that their regular polling place was closed.
"I went online and looked at all the open polling places and it wasn't on that list," said Mr. Kroll.
This is the first year for a new kind of voting in the county. So, says voter advocate Ann Daniels of Indivisible East Bay, some voters will go to their traditional polling place only to find it closed. "If people end up in the wrong place and they don't have the wherewithal to get to another polling location, I think that's a disgrace," said Ms. Daniels.
Indivisible East Bay, has placed flyers at many of the places that are or will be closed. "We've created flyers that say this polling location is closed but here's where you can vote and it's got a map of all the open locations and a list of all the open locations," said Daniels.
To make it safer for voters, under a governor's order and the California's Voter's Choice Act, law, Alameda County changed from one-day-only in-person voting at 700 polling places, to four days of voting at 100 locations. That's on top of mail-in, drop boxes, drive-in drop stops and in-person options according to Alameda County Registrar of Voters Tim Dupuis.
"We've been averaging about 30,000 votes that we've received a day recently. So, we are equipped to handle a surge if we see that on Tuesday," said Mr. Dupuis.
At the moment 60% of Alameda voters have already cast their ballots. The highest turnout ever here, was 78% for President Obama's first and second terms. It remains to be seen if there's a rush on the polls election day.
"So if there's any build up of voters in one place, you know, they they have certainly a number of other places to go to try and find some shorter lines," said Registrar Dupuis.
Many voters, in both parties, see this election as one of the nation's most critical. "It's probably more important than it's even been in any election in my life and I've got some gray hair going here." said Ms. Daniels.
Uber and Lyft are offering discounted one-way fares to voting centers with details on their web sites.