Voting in a Covid Pandemic: Wear a Mask and Bring Your Own Pens - The New York Times

also recommended putting up physical barriers between voting machines; spacing the machines apart from one another; indicating 6-foot distances with signs or floor markings for those waiting in line to vote; designating separate entrances and exits; the use of protective gear — masks, face shields, gloves and gowns — for poll workers assisting sick voters; and allowing curbside voting for people who are ill.

“Ensuring that ill voters can vote while maintaining poll worker and voter safety will be essential to minimizing transmission without restricting voting rights,” the report said.

The Delaware survey found that most workers and voters wore masks, but did not always use them properly to cover both the mouth and nose.

But only 54 percent of the workers surveyed said that they rarely or never saw sloppy mask use by voters.

Noting that “a substantial proportion” of the poll workers saw incorrect mask use by voters, the report said, “further messaging on proper mask use, including at polling locations, might be needed to strengthen the effectiveness of masks during upcoming elections.”.

Nineteen of the 522 workers in the survey had contact with a voter who was ill, with or without a known Covid diagnosis, the report said.

Continuing efforts to recruit younger poll workers might reduce the proportion of workers at risk for severe cases of Covid, the report said