There are countries where the infected can leave their homes to vote, Portugal would not be a series | Covid-19
The discussion that has now taken place in Portugal about whether those infected can or cannot leave their homes to vote in the January 30 legislative elections have already taken place in other countries, some very close.
The high solutions to allow the right to vote to be exercised by everyone have taken the most varied forms: times for contaminated and not contaminated; special polling stations; more voting days; powers of attorney; drive Thru for cars or bicycles and receiving ballot papers at home. In countries like the United States or Germany, where the rules vary from state to state, the question does not arise because postal voting has long been a reality.
Here are some of the return solutions – not all of them involve leaving the house, but if that happens here, Portugal will not be fundamental:
special polling stations
Israel was one of the first countries in the world to have advanced in a pandemic situation and opted for a model that Portugal may eventually import: special voting creoles for those who were in isolation because they were considered a risky contact or because they were infected at the time of voting.
Initially, in 2020, there were just over five thousand voters confined by determination of the health authorities, and only 16 mobile polling stations (in tents) were needed for these cases. Voters filled out ballot papers in the car and placed them in ballot boxes received by officials who were protected with full suits, gloves, masks and visors. Everything worked like the drive Thru that exist in Portugal for tests to covid – further on there is a chapter on drive Thru.
A year later, with the pandemic at its height, the situation forced more logistics. The country’s usual 11,000 tables were expanded to 15,000 to avoid crowding and polling stations were set up in wards, nursing homes, hospitals, car parks, sports venues and hotels with people in quarantine. Those who did not have their own vehicle to get around could call free taxis. This model was called “personalized vote”.
Also in Lithuania, people in quarantine (positive or not) were able to vote in the October 2020 assessments in special polling stations, without any need for pre-registration, and were also able to vote from the cars.
Drive Thru
In March 2021, during a period of confinement, the Dutch went to the polls in a general election spread over three days, in order to mitigate the risks of contagion with SARS-CoV-2. Voting took place in places such as churches and conference centers and for the first two days only risk groups voted. Voters over 70 years of age voted by mail, something that is not possible in Portugal, for the series of emigration circles. The Netherlands also installed polling stations. drive Thru, including one, no.a plant center in Amsterdam for bicycles.
The option for drive Thru it was also followed in the Czech Republic, where all those infected and confined were able to vote in advance on special points and without leaving your cars. 80 were created drive Thru in the 14 regions of the country. In addition to this option, citizens in quarantine also have the option of requesting that one of the 156 mobile teams of the electoral commission go to their homes to collect the vote, a situation that also happened in Portugal in the presidential and local authorities of 2021. Regional and information for the Senate took place over two days.
In Israel and Lithuania it was also possible to vote without leaving the car.
time band
In February 2021, in the midst of the pandemic, in the updates in Catalonia the authorities chose to define a special time for infected or quarantined people to vote. On election day, between 6 pm and 7 pm, polling station staff donned protective suits, armed themselves with gloves and masks or visors, and received the votes of the confined Catalans. The Government began by trying to postpone the election to the month of May, to escape the period of greatest contagion, but the justice stopped that intention.
In Madrid, months later, a solution identical to that in Catalonia was followed. Covid-19 patients, their at-risk contacts and cases under active surveillance were able to vote in certain time slots high for the effect: between 10 am and 12 pm, people over 65 may vote with comorbidities; from 12:00 to 19:00 a general population voted, without restrictions and without active disease; and the period from 7 pm to 8 pm was reserved for symptomatic patients, with illness or isolation.
Voting by correspondence or proxy
United States of America, United Kingdom and Germany are some countries where you can vote by correspondence and where the issue of isolation has less impact in the latter.
In the case of the UK, the website How to vote / vote and coronavirus(How to vote – alteration and coronavirus) left a piece of advice to the confined: “If you have symptoms of covid-19 or have been asked to isolate yourself, do not visit the polling station. See yourself for an emergency proxy vote. ” This vote is the other option available in that country in the amendments of May 2021 and, in an emergency, it can be requested until 5:00 pm on the day of the election.
In France, voting by proxy exists for any electoral act and implies that the voter confides his intention to vote to another person, who presents himself/herself at the polling station with a proxy recognized by the authorities. Postal voting is also available.
According to a report on the state of global democracy in 2021, among the countries that allowed proxy voting in 2020 and 2021 are: Belize, Croatia, Poland, Switzerland, Algeria, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. Postal voting took place in countries such as: Iceland, Lithuania, Poland, Switzerland, the USA, Ecuador, Liechtenstein, Slovenia and the United Kingdom.
Early vote on mobility
Early voting or in mobility voting was one of the privileged options in Portugal for those who, anticipating that they could be infected or in quarantine on the day of going to the polls, insisted on voting in the presidential elections on January 24, 2021. A week before the previous ones , 246,880 were registered to vote (198,000 actually did). This time, the Government began by announcing that 1303 early voting stations will be set up in mobility, 628 more than in the presidential ones, but in the meantime, at the end of this Thursday’s Council of Ministers, António Costa confirmed that this number will be increased . Only from the 16th it is possible to enroll in the early vote on mobility.
Several countries have opted for this solution in the last two yearsAttractions: Belarus, Iceland, Israel, Jamaica, Lithuania, New Zealand, Russia, Sri Lanka, Cape Verde, Liechtenstein and Slovenia, among others.
home collection
Receiving votes at home was the only way that infected or confined citizens had to vote in the most recent ones that took place in Portugal. According to the rules of the Directorate-General for Health, the votes chosen must be collected at the door of the house by a reduced team that is not part of any risk group. The presidential and municipal authorities were responsible for organizing this process, with the support of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, as well as organizing it now in the case of legislative ones.
In MAI’s accounting, thirteen thousand citizens registered to vote in this system, having actually voted 11 thousand. The big criticism of the model is that voters can only register for a person holding votes until the tenth day before the election.
just of absences
In Brazil, where voting is mandatory for those over 18 and under 70, the Electoral Court advised positive or suspected cases to stay at home and informed that a any absence from the polls for reasons related to the covid could be justified with a medical certificate, thus avoiding the fine.
“In the specific case of covid-19, the Electoral Court guides, in the Health Security Plan, that voters stay home if they have a fever on polling day or have contracted covid-19 within 14 days of polling day. Anyone who fails to vote for this reason must present a document, such as a certificate, medical statement or test that proves the condition”, wrote in the place of the electoral authority.
There was, however, no rule prohibiting voting in case of symptoms or illness, which is why it was “guaranteed that the possible security measures to protect voters in the event of contaminated people”.