Covid-19 threatens voting for nursing home residents

But those traditional options have been upended by the pandemic. Few polling locations are expected to be set up in nursing homes this year, as many facilities are just beginning to emerge

from a federal lockdown that began in March. In-person voting will also be more limited nationwide, especially for long-term care residents. This year many states are restricting the number

of in-person polling places that they operate because larger venues are better for social distancing and because states are expecting fewer Election Day poll workers this year. Further,

nursing homes are unlikely to encourage residents to go to the polls, given how susceptible they are to serious complications from the coronavirus. Alexa Schoeman, a deputy state long-term

care ombudsman in Texas, told AARP's state office during a recent Facebook Live conversation that residents can still vote in person during the pandemic, but they may then have to

quarantine for 14 days if they decide to leave their facility. Schoeman noted that curbside voting will be available in Texas and in some other states. Some long-term care facilities will be

allowed to drive residents to election sites, she said, where they can cast a ballot without leaving the vehicle. But this option depends on staff availability and facility planning and is

unlikely to be widely available nationally. "We know that staff are stretched, and we know that things not in immediate jeopardy or not related to infection control have kind of been

pushed to the wayside amid COVID,” Kohn says. Many states have relaxed restrictions on voting by mail, including absentee voting, to make casting a ballot easier and safer. But in nursing

homes, even voting this way is expected to be muddied by the pandemic. That's because volunteers and election officials who would normally visit with residents in the fall to do voter

education and to answer questions may not be able to enter many long-term care facilities this year. "The nursing home staff will have to do all of it this year,” says Mairead Painter,

who works in Connecticut as a long-term care ombudsman, part of a national network of officials who help nursing home residents and their loved ones work through issues. Sondra Norder,

president and CEO of the St. Paul Elder Services nursing home and assisted living facilities in Kaukauna, Wisconsin, says on-site social workers will help residents cast their absentee

ballots in the absence of election officials. Staffers can read ballots to applicants who need assistance, but they won't be able to answer questions about candidates’ platforms because

the state doesn't want them to potentially influence residents’ votes. "Previously, election officials went resident to resident to help them fill out their ballots, collected

them and brought them to the clerk's office,” she says. Nursing homes that accept Medicare and Medicaid payments have a legal responsibility to assist residents with voting, but the

degree to which they can assist them varies. North Carolina and Louisiana, for instance, have laws that prohibit nursing home staffers from helping residents cast their ballots. In North

Carolina, residents must call in a “multi-partisan assistance team” from their local election office — a tall order this year given nursing homes’ visitor restrictions.