The shadow of the coronavirus pandemic hovered over the 2020 general election and one of the points that led more Michigan citizens to vote through absentee voting than in the user for the first time in state history.
“The vast majority of the electorate voted for the absent,” Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson said at a news convention Tuesday night. At least 3. 3 million ballots were mailed, he said, with about 2 to 2. 5 million others voting in user at the ballot box.
On Election Day, the state recorded 3106 new cases of COVID-19 and 43 deaths from a pandemic that has already killed 7,400 Michigan residents and inflamed some 188,000.
Although the number of tests performed in the state has remained strong in recent weeks, the percentage of positive COVID-19 tests exceeded 10% on Monday, a widespread network transmission indicator.
Dr. Deborah Birx, coordinator of the White House Coronavirus Working Group, warned this week: “We are entering the maximum phase of concern and fatality of this pandemic.
More: Michigan coronavirus cases: pandemic monitoring
Also: As COVID-19 cases again, are Michigan fitness service providers ready?It’s complicated.
That’s the main explanation lou Medel, 37, voted absent. He needed to take on the threat of contracting the virus, or inadvertently spreading it as an asymptomatic carrier, showing up at an electoral college on Tuesday.
“I did it to be safe,” Medel said. “For our protection and the protection of others. Plus, it gives you more time to search for candidates. “
Instead of voting Tuesday night, Medel and Casey Shagena, 36, walked with a friend in Clark Park, in their neighborhood southwest of Detroit.
Shagena said the coVID-19 threat had played a role in his resolve to vote early on the user in the local secretary’s office and said that voting in this way allowed him to have crowds and long queues at the polls on Election Day and lessen the threat of contracting the virus.
“I don’t think other people take it seriously,” Medel said. “It’s something never before experienced, and we don’t feel comfortable rolling the bucket or just believing in the concept of collective immunity. “
About 42% of the US electorate has been able to do so. But it’s not the first time He said the COVID-19 pandemic was his most sensible fear before Tuesday’s election, according to an AP VoteCast ballot of another 132,000 people for the Associated Press through NORC at the University of Chicago.
About part of the electorate said the virus was not at all low.
At a satellite polling station in Clark Park, another 15 people were covered in the dark tuesday night to sign the same day to vote. They all wore masks, although the space between them was not 6 feet.
Johanna Fugon, 18, from southwest Detroit, among those queuing.
As a voter for the first time, Fugon said the pandemic could keep him away.
“I’m too worried,” she said of the COVID-19 threat at the polls. “I came here for my family. I need my voice to be heard by them. “
Most of his relatives emigrated from Honduras and are not allowed to vote, said Fugon, who was born in the United States and graduated in 2020 from Western International High School.
“It feels smart to be voting,” she said, noting that the ultimate vital factor for her and her circle of relatives is immigration.
Meagan Singh, 38, from southwest Detroit, wore a mask while walking down Porter Avenue, his polling station, Tuesday night at Maybury Elementary School.
“I came here to vote on the user because I did,” said Singh, who works in a warehouse for an online sales company.
President Donald Trump “is not doing a very smart job, especially with COVID,” he said. But she felt comfortable voting as a user despite the pandemic “as long as everyone wore masks. “
However, the use of the mask is not mandatory at Michigan polling stations on Tuesday. Voters were encouraged to use them, but they were not required to do so.
And even others with active instances of COVID-19 and those quarantined due to close contact with a proven case of viruses were eligible to move to polling stations to vote in person.
But it wasn’t easy for everyone in Michigan with active cases of coronavirus voting on Tuesday.
Demetrius Alexander, 41, of Detroit, got tested for the virus last Thursday and went to his polling place at Henry Ford High School on Election Day.
He revealed that he had tested positive for the coronavirus, and a voting officer redirected him to Wayne County Community College, which is not his assigned polling place, with commands to use the drive-thru voteArray
After a two-and-a-half hour wait in college, he was also expelled.
Alexander returned to Henry Ford High School, where he was finally able to vote across the sidewalk.
He wondered how many other people with COVID-19 had not been able to spend hours looking to vote as he had. The process, he said, discouraging “to the point where I almost gave up. “
Contact Kristen Shamus: kshamus@freepress. com. Follow her on Twitter @kristenshamus.
This story came as an informed recommendation as a component of ProPublica’s Electionland project.