(Seguin) — Sharing the importance of voting is not the only thing that has been at the forefront for the Guadalupe County Elections Office as it tackles a historical election amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The office which is currently conducting its Joint Republican and Democratic Primary Runoff Election for Texas is also sharing details behind the voting process that has been put into place to keep people safe.
Lisa Hayes, the elections administrator for Guadalupe County, says when voters come out to vote, they’ll see a process that is not only safe but aligned with each of the public health precautions that have been laid out by state health officials.
“Essentially what we are doing is the voting machines are all six feet away from each other. We have Stylus (pens) that the voters use when they check in to sign-in. Those are being sanitized after every voter. They have disposal stylus (pen) that they are being issued to vote on the voting machines. It looks like a pen but it’s got a sponge at one end. So, they use them once and they throw them away. We are wearing masks. We are asking the voters to wear masks and we are sanitizing everything. We are wiping down door handles and voting equipment and counters — doing everything we can to keep the polling places as clean as possible,” said Hayes.
Hayes says voting in Guadalupe County has been designed to be a contactless experience. She says voters touch the ballot and that’s basically all.
“So we have a soiled stylus cup and a sanitized stylus cup so as soon as that one is being used and the voter walks away, the poll workers are taking a clean one and setting it up on the voter check-in station so they are only used once and then when the voter is checked in and they are given a ballot to go vote on the Express Vote, they are also given a disposal stylus which is a Q-tip. Then, they can use the Q-tip to vote on the Express Vote so they never have to touch the screen,” said Hayes.
Hayes says ever since Texas Governor Greg Abbott announced that the runoff election would be pushed from May to now, her office has steadily been working to ensure that all safety measures were put into place. Plus, she says the poll workers have also been highly trained on the new procedures.
“Normally, we use a driver’s license swiper when the voter comes in to check-in. They give us their driver’s license. We swipe it. We are not even using those at this point. The voter is just holding up their ID for us or laying it on the counter and pushing it over to us so we can enter the information off of it without having to touch it and that protects the voters too. They may have to pull their mask down so we can identify them and match it to the picture on their driver’s license. But it’s gone a long way to helping with all this passing things back and forth between us and the voters. It’s taken a little bit of finagling to get the procedure down but it’s working very well and the voters have been great about it. They have been so patient and appreciative of the effort we are putting into it. I am so grateful for that,” said Hayes.
In providing these safety voting measures now, state election officials say they hope to use the July primary runoff as a “dry run” for how safety protocols can then be used during the November election.
Early voting runs through Friday, July 10. Polling locations will not be open on Friday, July 3 or Saturday, July 4 in observance of Independence Day.