Pandemic voting: 5 things Austin learned from the July election that will matter in November

1. Turnout will be HIGH

The July 14 election happened under circumstances that should have turned off many voters: triple-digit heat, fear of a contagious virus and a short ballot. It was also in July, which never has elections. But voters were not deterred. Typical primary runoff turnout is about 5%, DeBeauvoir said.

Last Tuesday, turnout topped 21%.

The numbers can be attributed to not only increased interest in current events and politics, but also an expensive get-out-the-vote effort and hotly contested local races that captured the public's interest in policing and criminal justice in the wake of police brutality protests, said Antonio Gutierrez of Common Cause Texas, which tracks elections.

"Down-ballot races don't usually drive turnout as much as the top of the ticket, but in this case, people had the rare opportunity to weigh in on an open state Senate seat, plus everything happening in the criminal justice realm really put the county [attorney] and district attorney races in the spotlight in a way you don't normally see," Gutierrez said.

Much of that enthusiasm is expected to translate to November, when the race between President Donald Trump and Democrat Joe Biden is forecast to have record voter engagement.

That rings true even in red-state Texas, where some recent polling shows Biden competitive with the Republican incumbent and where, for the first time in recent history, the presidential election might be a real competition.

2. We'll need more poll workers

In the days leading up to the election, some 25 workers backed out, DeBeauvoir said. On Election Day, another six or eight didn't show up.

The county had several employees on standby to handle last-minute no-shows, and poll hours weren't affected. But they'll be looking to hire more employees to staff the 200 Election Day polling sites and 35 early voting locations for the November contests to avoid empty chairs and shut-down voting sites.

The average age of a Travis County election worker is somewhere around 70, DeBeauvoir said—a demographic particularly vulnerable to COVID-19—but more young people are getting interested in working the polls.

Extra staffers this year would be needed to make sure people are social distancing in line and count people coming in the doors so that there aren't too many people inside at once, she said.

She estimated her office would budget an additional $500,000 for extra staff and personal protection equipment.

3. Polling places will be a problem

One big challenge that lies ahead, DeBeauvoir said, is going to be nailing down—and keeping—some 200 polling sites for Nov. 3.

Last week, there were 100 polling sites open on Election Day for the much smaller runoff, and—like workers—getting and keeping those was a battle, DeBeauvoir said.

"I'm a little worried about being able to find places in the middle of a pandemic," DeBeauvoir said. "It was difficult to get 100 places to say 'yes' and then stick with 'yes.' Some called back and said, 'No, we changed our mind, we're too frightened.' And I have sympathy for them, but it doesn't help me bring the election to voters."

Sites will have to be larger than they normally are to accommodate social distancing and keep the lines manageable, she said.

Grocery stores were off the list for early voting sites during the July election due to social distancing, and will likely not be willing participants in November either, she said.

A sizable chunk of polling sites traditionally are in schools, and with classes potentially back in session by then, the schools likely will not be willing to accommodate the influx of voters during the pandemic—nor should they, DeBeauvoir said.

"That's a real problem," she said. "With the loss of all of the facilities ... it's going to be hard to find enough locations that are convenient to voters, both on Election Day and for early voting. It's going to be a real challenge."

4. We'll need to update behind-the-scenes staff for mail-in voting

In addition to adding poll workers, DeBeauvoir said she'll be doing some restructuring behind the scenes as well.

Every election, the Early Voting Ballot Board is in charge of overseeing early votes and certifying signatures and mail-in ballots.

But even though DeBeauvoir hired three times the usual number of workers—more than 50 in total—to sift through applications and verify signatures, that won't be enough to handle the volume of mail-in requests and increased turnout for the November election, she said.

"We're going to have five times as many" mail-in ballots and requests, DeBeauvoir said.

For the next election, she'll hire more people and restructure some of the behind-the-scenes labor, schedule them in shifts, and generally beef up the operations.

Some structural changes could become permanent if voters pressure their lawmakers to expand mail-in balloting to everyone, as some states have done, Gutierrez said. So far, efforts to expand the eligibility for mail-in voting have been unsuccessful.

Part of the extra $1 million spent in this last election went toward handling the influx with new envelope-stuffing machines that helped get mail-in ballots out to voters and high-speed scanners to deal with the volume, she said. Those were one-time expenses that won't need to be made again for this November.

5. PPE was worth the money

A large chunk of the extra $1 million in election expenses went toward personal protection equipment, and voters used it dutifully, DeBeauvoir said. The county will employ the same strategy on a larger scale in November, and start stockpiling supplies now in case there's a shortage later this year.

Not only were voters and poll workers using the equipment, she said, but almost every voter wore a mask. People also used the sanitizer and the finger cots and popsicle sticks were popular ways to minimize contact with the machines, she said.

"Voters understood intuitively how to use them, so that worked really well, and we're going to continue that," she said. "In other words, we know now how voters respond to ways to keep the polling place safe, and I think it's working really well."

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