REGIONAL— Election officials in St. Louis County are working to process a flood of absentee ballots as thousands of county residents are turning to the early voting option in response to the current coronavirus pandemic.
“So far, we’ve sent out 57,627 absentee ballots,” said St. Louis County elections coordinator Phil Chapman. Of those, just over 42,000 have been returned as of this Wednesday, with six days to go until the Nov. 3 election.
By contrast, the county processed a total of 16,302 absentee ballots in 2016. “So, we’re approaching triple the numbers of 2016,” noted Chapman.
The deluge has added to the workload for both county and local election officials, since absentee balloting involves more hands-on processing to verify each ballot. Chapman said the county auditor’s office, which oversees elections, has brought in additional staff to help with the workload. “We pulled in staff from other departments that normally wouldn’t help with the election,” said Chapman. “We brought back some retirees and our regular staff is working lots of overtime. It’s a manual process, and it takes time.”
Chapman acknowledged that the big jump in absentee balloting will increase the county’s cost of conducting the election. Besides the cost of mailing tens of thousands of absentee ballot packets (the county pays for both delivery and return postage) there is considerable cost for printing the different pieces of that packet, notes Chapman. “But we want to be sure that people feel comfortable in exercising their right to vote,” he added.
While many more county residents are voting absentee than ever before, it appears that most voters are still planning to show up on Tuesday to cast their ballots. In 2016, residents cast a total of 129,000 ballots in St. Louis County, so polling locations are still likely to see plenty of voters on Nov. 3. While county officials expect that Tuesday’s voting will come off without major incidents, they have been making contingency plans in the event of disruptions. President Donald Trump has suggested that his supporters turn out at polling locations, ostensibly to provide a check on illegal voting, but his call has raised concerns among election officials across the country.
“We’ve been in contact with the Secretary of State and have met with law enforcement,” said Chapman. While election officials are trained to address most issues that crop up on Election Day, Chapman said they’ve discussed when officials might have to escalate their response by bringing in law enforcement. “We’re keeping the lines of communication open. We’re trying to make sure we’re all on the same page.”
Chapman said he understands this election has been a particular challenge for election officials in every jurisdiction of the county. “I want to thank all the election judges for helping us out. It’s a huge job that sometimes goes unrecognized,” he said. “Trying to run an election in a pandemic is difficult.”