Along with pleas for Contra Costa County voters to use mail-in ballots in November, county supervisors and elections officials said they will redouble efforts to recruit as many younger poll workers as possible to protect people vulnerable to contracting the COVID-19 coronavirus.
That is part of what Contra Costa County elections officials said is a balancing act to both make voting as safe as possible and to enable voting for as many people as possible.
While elections officials stressed to the county Board of Supervisors this week that they encourage as much voting as possible by mail in November, they realize polling places will continue to serve both some of
the county’s most fervent voters, and some of the hardest populations to reach.
County Clerk-Recorder Deborah Cooper told the supervisors that proposed state legislation, Senate Bill 423, will likely dictate a minimum number of in-person polling places in counties.
Until those numbers are made clear, Cooper said her office is moving forward with a plan calling for approximately 100 polling places throughout the county on election day (Nov. 3), three in-person “satellite” voting centers for helping people vote, and 45 drop-boxes for mail-in ballots (above and beyond U.S. Postal Service boxes).
These numbers, Cooper cautioned, may well change, based on future COVID-19-related health restrictions, the provisions of SB 423 (now in committee) and the number of poll workers the county attracts.
But she and others said that, however many polling places are staffed, that the fewer voters who vote in person, and the more who vote by mail, is better for everyone.
To that end, every active voter in the county will be sent a vote-by-mail ballot, Cooper told the supervisors.
“Vote-by-mail is historically higher than in-person turnout … and this will be a controversial and highly scrutinized election,” said Cooper, who along with Supervisor Karen Mitchoff stressed that concerns of more voter fraud with mail-in ballots are unfounded.
Nevertheless, county election officials said staffing as many polling places as is safe is a priority.
Supervisor John Gioia said that while more polling places would mean more poll workers — often seniors who would suffer greater consequences from COVID-19 infection — having more open voting locations open over more
days would minimize large gatherings of voters.
“Why wouldn’t we want to present the opportunity for voters to spread out over more days?” Gioia asked.
How does the County plan to authenticate mail-in ballots?
Will the County allow ballot harvesting?
Are the County voter rolls up to date and accurate?
The news has been obsessed with the stories about voter fraud.
How does the County plan to assure the Voters that there is no voter fraud?
The media is not obsessed with stories about voter fraud. Trump (the same guy who votes by mail) is obsessed with mail-in ballots because he believes they will hurt his chances for re-election . The media picks up the story and puts their spin on it. Naturally, Fox agrees with Trump and MSNBC disagrees. And it appears the usual spin jockeys are riding the Trump horse on Claycord.
70% of Contra Costa voters already vote by mail.
Here’s a Brookings analysis of voter fraud rates based on Heritage Foundation (conservative) database. Hint: it’s minuscule.
https://www.brookings.edu/blog/fixgov/2020/06/02/low-rates-of-fraud-in-vote-by-mail-states-show-the-benefits-outweigh-the-risks/
Vote by mail fraud.
“and this will be a controversial and highly scrutinized election”
Why?
Can’t we all just mail in or drop at a box at city halls.
Voters who vote based on feelings and emotions ( mental illness) shouldn’t be allowed to vote period. I say no on mail in ballots. If you are scared stay home and let the courageous run the country.
Why don’t you pay polling staff (a lot) more money and stop the 10+ hours required to work? Maybe you’d get healthier people applying.
I wish it was 10 hours.
We show up at 6am and if all goes smoothly we leave at 9pm.
15 hours minimum.
Even though the democrats will win everything in California anyway they are going to make sure of it. By any means necessary the motto of the democrat party. Just like the Marxists.
So the obvious question for CCC election officials is, have you purged our rolls of voters who have died, moved out of CCC, or are duplicates? Report please.
“…Supervisor Karen Mitchoff stressed that concerns of more voter fraud with mail-in ballots are unfounded.” Haha! So she is saying there IS voter fraud, but with mail-in there is not MORE fraud.
Contra Costa Elections is very transparent about process they have a Facebook page Engage Contra Costa where they describe and show many of the activities. They also of course have a website. Cocovote.us And you can also review the Secretary of State Facebook and webpages for info sos.ca.gov
What is ballot harvesting? Only you can determine who can send/ deliver your ballot. If you deliver it, you need to sign that you are allowing it to be delivered. The description and guidance is on the cocovote page
Officials said they will redouble efforts to recruit as many younger poll workers as possible.
Is that not age discrimination…just sayin
No it’s not age discrimination, but rather an intelligent decision. As stated in the article (and observed if you’ve ever voted at a polling place), most pole workers are senior citizens who are at the greatest risk for COVID-19. Attracting younger poll workers would help lessen that risk. Also, Primary elections across the US since COVID-19 have generally been short of poll workers because most were seniors, and declined to work due to COVID risk.
However, I doubt many young adults will be interested in working a 13 plus hour shift on voting day (7 AM – 8 AM, plus any needed time to set up and take down) for a pittance of payment. Not to mention the upset and rude people the poll workers have to deal with.
I like how they put in there that a vote by mail fraud worries are unfounded are you kidding me there are countless stories in the news lately and over the years of exactly that. That’s exactly why they’re pushing for vote-by-mail it’s much easier for them to cheat
Vote in Person
Demand voter ID
Confirmation that the CCHealth Marxists will be in a decision-making role on voting procedures and infrastructure ?
Not very reassuring considering their track record
Central County is similar to Orange County and we may surprise them with a very large turnout
I’m voting in person.
Not sure I understand the issue. Mail in ballots have been used in just about all past elections. How about, don’t change anything. If you want to mail it in, go for it. Otherwise, who cares if we’re over staffed at the Facilities for one election. Everyone is making something out of nothing.
Don’t conflate the current system of vote by mail (where a voter must request a ballot and if that voter is registered, a ballot is mailed to their current location) with the process where ballots are mailed to the last known address of each person listed on the voter rolls. The latter is a recipe for voter fraud, and is the process championed by Gavin Newsome.
Vote by mail fraud.
If there ever was a time to vote in person, this is it.
Voting by mail leaves an easy-to-audit paper trail. All of these fraud accusations are ridiculous.
If you can protest, we can vote
If you can riot, we can vote
If you can loot, we can vote
Unfounded huh. Clean the rolls. California doesn’t get to allow illegals to vote. They gave away our tax money to give medical care, housing, stimulus. They think they can just send ballots to illegals. This whole vote by mail is a huge voter fraud. Think bigger. It’s way bigger then just simple voting by mail for people who request.
We know this:
Governor Newsom doesn’t do anything that is NOT politically motivated. Therefore, there must be an advantage to mail in voting or he would not bother campaigning it under the guise of Covid.
He has abused The Emergency Services Act of 1970 to make changes to several laws without any sort of accountability.
When turnout is high, Republicans lose. Vote. Vote. Vote.