Fairfax officials prepping now for busy 2020 election cycle – Inside NoVA

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Fairfax County supervisors, concerned about the dearth of parking and possible security risks for students, said Dec. 3 they favored that schools used for polling be closed for classes during elections.

“By law, you can’t stop people from going into the voting place,” said Supervisor John Cook (R-Braddock), who noted that the elementary school in his precinct held a field day during this year’s June 11 primary.

“Kids are outside during field day and you’ve got hundreds and hundreds of people – some of whom nobody has seen before – wandering in to vote,” Cook said. “This problem really needs to be addressed. We need the School Board on board with this.”

Supervisors discussed the issue following an annual-report presentation by Fairfax County Electoral Board secretary Kate Hanley.

Supervisor Jeff McKay (D-Lee), who will take over as board chairman in January, agreed with Cook on election safety at schools and said insufficient parking at some schools, especially in older parts of the county, can hamper voter access if the facilities remain open for classes.

“If you drive by and you normally vote when school is closed, and you look and see an entire parking lot full of cars, you’re more likely to keep going and say ‘never mind’ because you’re thinking there’s a long line in there and there might not be a place to park,” McKay said.

A total of 167 Fairfax County schools are used as polling places during elections. Schools are closed on general-election days, such as the one held Nov. 5, and will be closed for the presidential primary on March 3, 2020, because of anticipated heavy voter turnout, said Lucy Caldwell, a schools spokesman.

As for security, all county middle, secondary and high schools have school resource officers on-site. Police officers and the school system’s safety-and-security personnel “closely monitor election-day activities in the elementary schools,” Caldwell said. “Access to other areas of the school buildings beyond the polling locations is restricted. The polling sites are staffed and monitored by the Fairfax County Office of Elections.” 

Schools remained open June 11 because the local primary election “generally draws a much lighter turnout and does not impact parking on school property or other activities that may be going on at individual schools,” Caldwell said.

The county government uses a wide array of sites for voting – schools, parks-and-recreation facilities, libraries, fire stations, community centers, churches, etc. – but election officials are having a harder time finding polling places and satellite voting locations, Hanley said. Without the use of school facilities, “we would be in serious trouble,” she added.

Polling places must be safe and accessible, and provide parking, technology access and sufficiently large rooms. Satellite locations must be county-owned or -leased and have a room that can be dedicated to voting for two to three weeks, a place to lock and store equipment nightly, and acceptably secure technology that can link up with the county’s system, she said.

The county this year has 243 voting precincts and 744,088 registered voters, 712,986 of whom are active and 31,102 inactive, Hanley said.

The county has held five elections this year: two special elections, one for the town of Vienna, a June 11 Democratic primary and the November general election, she said.

This year’s election cycle was heavy on candidates because all seats in the state Senate, House of Delegates, Fairfax County Board of Supervisors and county School Board were on the ballot.

Thirty-three candidates battled for 11 nominations in the June primary and 93 office-seekers sought 49 seats in the November election, Hanley said. The county had to offer 76 ballot combinations, plus eight additional ones in Providence District following the death of Board of Supervisors candidate Paul Bolon in August, she said.

The Nov. 5 election saw a total of 308,561 voters cast ballots. That included 279,252 people who voted on Election Day and 29,309 absentee votes, 20,605 of which were cast in-person at 10 satellite locations and 8,704 received via mail.

The November election saw a 43.4 percent turnout rate, higher than the 30.3 percent recorded in 2015, but trailing the 56.1-percent turnout in 2017 and the whopping 82.5 percent in the hotly contested 2016 presidential election.

A total of 2,198.5 election workers (some of whom worked half-days) staffed polling sites in the November election, 149 worked at satellite locations and 53 staffed the Central Absentee Precinct, Hanley said.

Fairfax County will hold at least five more elections next year: a Democratic presidential primary in March, two town elections in May, a June primary and the Nov. 3 election, which will feature the U.S. presidential race, Congressional elections and the Herndon Town Council election.

Given the probability that the General Assembly will approve no-excuse, in-person absentee voting, county election officials are planning to add three more satellite voting locations (for a total of 13) and hoping to bolster their ranks of election officers to 3,500, she said.

Officials are expecting more residents to register and vote, and are preparing for a more extensive November ballot, including proposed constitutional amendments and bond referendums, with text offered in four languages.

Hanley, a former Providence District supervisor who later served as Board of Supervisors chairman, thanked retiring chairman Sharon Bulova (D) and Supervisors Catherine Hudgins (D-Hunter Mill), Linda Smyth (D-Providence) and Cook for their service.

“You’ve served the citizens of Fairfax with dignity and common sense, mindful of the welfare of the entire community,” she said.

Hanley suggested they spend some of their retirement days working as election officers.

“I have something that will actually pay you $175 for a day and I can fill up your days – or at least five of them – next year,” she said. “We need election officials, a lot of them, and I think the four of you retiring have potential.”