VICE News: The US Eliminated Nearly 21,000 Election Day Polling Locations for 2020

Almost 21,000 Election Day polling places have been eliminated heading into the 2020 U.S. election, a drastic dip in voting locations driven by a heavy shift to mail voting, coronavirus-related consolidations, cost-cutting measures, and voter suppression.

VICE News obtained data from all 50 states and Washington, D.C., on the number of physical polling locations they will have in place on November 3, and compared their numbers to how many sites they had in 2016 and 2012.

What emerged was a patchwork of cuts large and small across the country. Many states made these cuts as they were expanding mail voting — 23 states made it easier to vote by mail this year because of COVID. But the overall trend is clear: Most states are eliminating polling locations, a trend that could disproportionately impact poor, young and non-white voters.

Of the 45 states that weren’t using mail voting exclusively before the 2020 election, 40 of them have decreased the number of Election Day voting locations from 2016. Of those 40 states who made cuts, 35 are not sending mail ballots to everyone, and 19 require many voters to take it upon themselves to apply for a mail ballot application. The five states that refused to allow mail voting for most people all cut voting sites, including the emerging swing state of Texas.

The net result of all of these changes: A 20% dip in polling places across the country from 2016, and a 22% drop since 2012. And while the coronavirus pandemic has accelerated this trend, it didn’t create it: There were more than 3,000 fewer polling locations in 2016 than  in 2012. …

Some states that made these pivots in past years saw huge Election Day lines as a result, as local officials underestimated in-person Election Day turnout. Nevada, for instance, had hours-long lines after switching to vote centers in 2018. And this year’s chaotic, COVID-impacted primary season showed that just pivoting to mail and shuttering most poll locations doesn’t work, with massive lines in states like Georgia that expanded mail voting access during their primaries while cutting polling places. Simply put, even the best-intentioned states that are cutting voting locations are trying something new and different, and it’s unclear how well it will work on Election Day.

“Putting all your eggs in one basket seems like a very bad idea—and it’s avoidable. We’ve seen what happened in the primaries,” said Sylvia Albert, the national director of voting and elections at the good-government organization Common Cause. …

Even in states that have dramatically expanded mail voting, cuts to in-person Election Day voting sites could lead to disenfranchised voters — and could disproportionately impact poor and nonwhite voters as well as younger voters who are less likely to live at the same address they did in the last election.

“You cannot fault voters for being hesitant about vote-by-mail. Obviously I think it’s a great option, but that’s what it is — an option. Voters should be able to choose whichever way they want to vote,” said Albert, Common Cause’s national director of voting and elections. …

North Dakota is another state that’s made deep cuts without making it much easier to vote: It has eliminated almost 60% of its Election Day in-person voting locations. The state has long allowed mail voting. But voters still have to request a mail vote application, fill it out and send it back, then complete and return their actual ballot — a multi-step process that is onerous especially for new voters. Only about one-third of North Dakotans voted by mail in 2018. The state’s substantial Native American population has often faced obstacles to voting, and those who live on reservations often face slower mail and can sometimes lack traditional addresses, complicating how they can receive ballots.

“Considering the access problems that Native groups have already, closing polling locations in North Dakota is another way to limit access,” said Albert. …

Parts of Maryland have historically had hours-long voting lines on Election Day. Some voters were forced to wait in line until after midnight during this summer’s primary. This plan could well make things significantly worse.

“We’re preparing for chaos, unfortunately,” said Joanne Antoine, executive director of Common Cause Maryland. …

While California has cut almost three-quarters of its voting sites, leaving around 10,000 voting-age citizens per polling location on average, that’s because most of its large counties have opted to switch to vote centers, where anyone who lives in the county can vote at any of their polling locations, rather than have to go to their specific precinct. People can also register to vote as late as Election Day when they go to vote.

The state also has more than 1,200 drop boxes for voters who don’t trust the mail to return their ballots, offers a full month of early in-person voting for those who want to vote in person, and will count all ballots postmarked by Election Day even if they come in days later in the mail. The result has been a surge in early ballot returns much higher than in previous years — 1.5 million were returned within two weeks of being sent out, ten times the number at the same date in 2016 — which will likely take pressure off Election Day voting.

The new model was crafted with heavy input from voting rights and civil rights groups, local community leaders, and local officials, and could well boost voter access and turnout overall. But it does have some risks.

Common Cause California Executive Director Jonathan Mehta Stein, who helped negotiate the plan, told VICE News that he hoped the combination of expanded voting options would help tamp down voting lines on Election Day and before, “But we can’t be certain of that” until the election happens.

The state also has one of the highest rates in the country of people moving, given its sky-high real estate prices and a large proportion of renters to homeowners, a large homeless population, and wildfires that have displaced more than 200,000. Many people will have an easier time voting this election. But for those who’ve moved and haven’t updated their address, or those who don’t have a home address, the new plan could make it harder to vote — especially if they don’t have transportation to the polls.

“We’re concerned about voters who are displaced by the COVID pandemic and voters who are displaced because of the wildfires. There are a lots of people who’ve been pushed out of their homes in 2020,” said Stein.