Levine discusses precautions to take when voting in person
Dr. Rachel Levine, Pennsylvania secretary of health, wants anyone worried about voting in person Tuesday and potential exposure to the novel coronavirus to know there’s an app for that.
To learn if one has been exposed, the Google Play or Apple App stores offer a free download of the “COVID Alert PA” app for smartphones.
The app provides automatic contact tracing to nearby phones if someone who also has the app is diagnosed with COVID-19.
For those over age 18 – the minimum voting age in the United States – there’s an app for iPhones that support iOS 13.5 and higher, and Android phones running Android 6.0 and higher.
Knowledge gained through the app can help reduce the risk of unknowingly spreading the virus to your friends, family and the larger community, according to the Department of Health.
In addition to the app, Levine, as a guest Friday morning in a preelection Zoom teleconference with the media, asked those voting in person to prepare a “COVID kit” for a trip to the polls, which should include a mask, hand sanitizer and a pen with blue or black ink.
Voters will be asked to stay at least six feet apart, and they will need to don a mask when waiting in line and voting.
“At the polls themselves, poll workers will be working constantly to make sure voting machines are sanitized,” Levine said.
According to Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar, approximately 2.3 million Pennsylvanians have already voted and mailed or dropped off ballots. The figure represents 73% of those who applied before the Oct. 27 deadline.
“You never get 100%,” Boockvar said. “People change their minds. They decide to vote in person. In the primary, I think we ended up getting approximately 80%.
“To be at 73% four days out is fantastic,” she said Friday, expecting to exceed the return rate during the initial wave of the COVID-19 pandemic that resulted in moving the April 28 primary to June 2.
Boockvar again emphasized that voters should drop off in person absentee or what’s been called a no-excuse mail-in ballot due to a potential time lag by the post office.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday let stand a ruling by the state Supreme Court that allows the tabulation of ballots postmarked by Election Day to be counted if they arrive at elections offices by Friday, Nov. 6, but the court also reserved the right to revisit the issue after the election.
“I don’t want voters to be thinking about the intricacies of the lawsuits,” Boockvar said, explaining that voters could become confused.
And while state law allows anyone who is waiting in line at 8 p.m. on Election Day to cast a vote in person at a polling place, Boockvar answered a question from a reporter who wanted to know if that applies to people who are waiting in a line to drop off ballots.
The answer was an emphatic, “No.”
“They have to lock the drop boxes by 8 p.m.,” Boockvar said. “I really urge voters, don’t wait until Election Day. There are likely to be lines even at drop boxes. Don’t be in that position.”
Washington County’s drop box is at the Courthouse Square office building, West Beau Street, Washington; Greene County’s drop box is at the county office building, 93 E. High St., Waynesburg; and Fayette County’s drop box is at the county office building, 22 E. Main St., Uniontown.