In-person voting begins today in Los Angeles County on a scale and frequency not seen in more than a decade.
Voting was not canceled or postponed due to either the coronavirus or a potential COVID-19 outbreak but the Los Angeles County Registrar of Voters announced on Friday that there would be an “in-person physical election in the fall” on a scale and frequency not seen in two decades.
The county registrar wrote in an email to L.A. Times readers on Friday, “We will be having precinct-based elections in addition to mail-in ballots in-person. We will be using the ‘in-person physical election’ model, not the ‘in-person virtual polling’ model as in years past.”
The move, which the registrar said was necessary to safeguard voters’ health and safety, comes out of an unprecedented response meant to keep voters from going to the polls in person and is being seen as a significant step toward reviving voting amid the coronavirus pandemic.
“We’ve had this discussion in regards to the coronavirus,” said registrar of voters John Noguez. “Obviously, the registrar is required to implement whatever policies and regulations are necessary to ensure the health and safety of the voters who are entitled to the vote.”
“This is the first time that we’ve had an election occurring at the same time as the COVID-19 crisis,” he said.
The Los Angeles County Registrar of Voters sent out an email with instructions to voters Friday afternoon directing them to vote via hand-delivered mail, mail-in ballots in-person and in-person physical election, including in person voting in their neighborhoods.
While there was debate on the countywide scale of the election, the registrar said there were three reasons for having the elections occur in person.
The first was to keep voters who were not able to come to the registrar’s office safe. The second reason was to ensure physical distance between voters and poll workers so as not to spread the virus.
The final reason was to allow for a system of voter ID cards to be used during the election, which could be seen as a safeguard against
