This Vote by Mail postcard was sent to Levy County residents not registered to vote by mail. Voters can still use their voting precinct if they choose, addressee side.

By Terry Witt – Spotlight Senior Reporter

                As it stands now, the Aug. 18 primary election and the Nov. 3 general election in Levy County won’t be affected in any big way by the COVID-19 outbreak in Florida, except poll workers will look a little different.

            Supervisor of Elections Tammy Jones Monday said her poll workers will wear sanitary face masks, and some will wear face shields, and the people who work at the sign-in tables will sit behind Plexiglas sneeze guards.

            “We’ve already ordered that. I’m looking at buying pens where the voters can just keep the pen instead of them signing the EVIC (electronic signature pad); they just sign the receipt with the pen given to them; they can take the same pen and go work the ballot and they take the pen with them. The bad thing is the cost.”

            The state is providing $20 million to elections offices in the state through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act (CARES) passed by Congress and signed into law by President Trump. She doesn’t know how much CARES money will be distributed to Levy County, but the pens, poll worker masks, gloves and other items purchased by Jones’ office for COVID-19 safety measures will be funded by CARES. She said the initial purchase will come from her budget.

            The CARES Act will also fund the “Vote by Mail” postcard Jones recently sent to voters in Levy County who currently aren’t registered to vote by absentee ballots. She said the state no longer uses the term “absentee ballots.” It uses the term Vote by Mail, so the card wasn’t anything new but it may have looked like something new to people more familiar with the term absentee ballot. Jones sends out Vote by Mail cards every year. One of the recommendations by the Centers for Disease Control this year is to encourage voters to vote by mail if they have concerns about waiting in line to vote at precincts.

            “They did away with the word absentee two years ago or maybe four years ago,” Jones said. “They changed the word in Florida from Absentee to Vote by Mail,” she said.

            Jones said the infection rate for COVID-19 in Levy County is low. Unless there is an uptick on the numbers of positive COVID-19 cases there will be no changes in how the Levy County elections operate. The county’s 13 precincts will open as they always do on Election Day, and early voting will take place in advance of both elections.

            There are currently 3 active COVID-19 cases in Levy County. The newest case is a 25-year-old woman in Levy County. The county has had 24 COVID-19 cases since the state began tracking the numbers in March.

            “We just don’t know what the future looks like, so it is hard to plan as we move forward,” she said. “That’s why we wanted to let people know voting by mail is an option. There are people who have health problems and may not want to go vote at a precinct. I didn’t limit distribution of the vote by mail cards to a certain age group.”

            People who were already signed up to vote by mail wouldn’t have received the postcard. But there are exceptions. Jones said she and her son are both signed up for Vote by Mail, but her husband likes to use the early voting option. Consequently, her family received the vote by mail postcard even though two family members already cast ballots by mail.

            “We’re still pretty confident we can provide the same services – early voting and Election Day, if things don’t get worse. Right now all the poll workers are on board with working (in the primary and general election),”Jones said. “So far it looks like we’re going to be somewhat normal. We do expect an uptick in voting by mail, but not that dramatically. Instead of mailing 5,000 ballots we might mail out 10,000 by mail. You will have people who want to vote in person.”

            “If there’s an uptick in cases we might consolidate our cases, more like a vote center situation and that won’t happen without the governor’s approval. The association (Florida State Association of Supervisors of Elections) has asked for guidance from the governor and some flexibility because there are counties that are going to be impacted by situations.”

            Jones noted that 50 percent of the COVID-19 cases are in the Miami-Dade, Broward County and Miami-Dade region of Florida.

            “Those counties are definitely going to see an uptick in vote by mail,” said Jones, the outgoing state president of the elections supervisors association. “I don’t foresee the state doing all Vote by Mail.”

            Jones said if there was a big increase in the number of COVID-19 cases in Levy County, her tentative plan would be to use Bronson, Chiefland and Williston precincts for voting and have a two-day window for people to vote at precincts in Cedar Key and Inglis. There would be two days of voting at those two sites.

            “I’m not sure yet. I definitely want to involve both local parties, the Republicans and Democratic parties, on anything in the upcoming elections to let them know why I want to make sure both parties are involved in the decision-making,” she said. “I don’t foresee that happening but we have to have a Plan B.”

            She said there is a group that has filed a lawsuit against the state to change how elections operate in several ways. One of the group’s proposals would be to extend the deadline for Vote by Mail by allowing ballots to be postmarked by Election Day. The mailed ballots would have to arrive within a certain number of days. The law currently requires all ballots, including mail-in ballots, to be in the elections office by 7 p.m. on Election Day.

            To request your Vote by Mail ballot, call the Levy County Elections Center at 352-486-516 3 or visit www.votelevy.gov.

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Enterprise Reporting by Terry Witt May 18, 2020; Posted May 18, 2020