TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) — New cases of the coronavirus are popping up each day.
One of the ways the coronavirus spreads is by touching infected surfaces. Over the next couple of weeks, thousands of voters will share touchscreen voting machines or pass paper ballots by hand.
Mark Early, the Leon County Supervisor of Elections, said they're working hard to prepare and reduce the chance of infection.
"We're training our poll workers and staff very carefully on proper hygiene," said Early. "That's one of the best ways to safeguard against infection, is to make sure your hands are clean. We're distributing hand sanitizer and other alcohol based disinfectant wipes to all of our polling sites and for election day."
Jim Brenner has been working polls since 2000. He wants voters to know they'll do everything in their power to keep you safe.
"We'll probably be cleaning and using the Lysol wipes, ect. to clean the pens that people are using to fill in the ballots," Brenner said. "We'll be wiping those down. Anything that people are touching throughout the day we'll be wiping down and making sure it's clean and sanitary. "
If you're still concerned about physically going to a polling site, you can always vote by mail instead.
"That's a big portion of our elections," Early said. "Yes, we do count our vote-by-mail ballots. I always vote by mail. So that's a very good way to do it. If you go to our website www.leonvotes.org, there are links to get your 'Right to the Vote by Mail Request Form.'"
Early said they've seen an uptick in voters choosing the mail-in option, so he thinks lines will be shorter than usual when early voting starts on Saturday.
