Avoiding COVID-19 clusters for elections begins now

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Across the country, millions of people have already voted by mail. In Massachusetts, in-person early voting starts Saturday.

We don’t know what the lines will be like, but in Georgia, early voting started Monday and in some locations, people waited in line for more than eight hours.

Massachusetts officials are getting ready for the rush of voters, during a pandemic with three weeks until election day. The state has already mailed 1.3 million ballots. That number is expected to go up to 1.7 million.

“I haven’t gotten my ballot yet,” said Mikael Berg of Stoughton. “I don’t know when it’s coming but when it does I will probably try and put it in the mail as soon as possible.”

Most ballots will come this week, and Berg has the right idea. The state wants everyone to mail in ballots as soon as possible or drop them off during early in-person voting between Oct. 17 through Oct. 30.

These early voters will help avoid a cluster on November 3rd. And yes, we do mean cluster.

[ How to vote by mail and track your ballot in Massachusetts ]

“I am very concerned about the rise in Covid in the state for the voting in-person opportunities both in early voting and on November 3,” said Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth William Francis Galvin. “In the state there are 40 communities now in the red zone. Urban areas like Lawrence, that uses buildings, don’t have a lot of space.”

The state is taking every precaution to ensure safe in-person voting, especially in communities with recent COVID-19 upticks. One way is advising communities to begin moving now to locations that are spacious enough to allow for social distancing.

[ Mass. early voting locations ]

“Twenty-two days is not a lot of time,” said Galvin. “Even if we have all these things, the reality is November 3rd is a 13 hour day. And many voters cannot vote early for whatever reason, employment, registration, whatever they might be. They need to go on that day and we also know most likely they will go early in the morning or late at night so it will be very hard to avoid large groups of people.”

The goal is simple, Covid concerns should not stop anyone from voting.

“I’m just trying to avoid any in-person contact as much as, I’m trying to only do necessary in-person contact,” said Berg.

In 2016 one-third of the state voted early including by mail and in-person. That number will likely be higher during the November election.

Avoiding COVID-19 clusters for elections begins now

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