Bartholomew County election officials are incorporating a response to a potential local outbreak of infectious disease as they continue developing written contingency plans for a range of issues for the May 5 primary.
Last week, Bartholomew County Clerk Jay Phelps and some 30 other election officials from around the state attended a meeting held at IUPUI by Indiana University researchers that included, among other things, a discussion on how to respond to an outbreak of the new strain of coronavirus, which Phelps said would be “uncharted territory” for election administrators.
The virus, known as COVID-19, has infected more than 89,000 people globally and caused more than 3,000 deaths as of Monday morning, The Associated Press reported. At least two people have died from the virus and 88 have been infected in the U.S.
Twenty-three cases of the disease were reported in the United States over the weekend, including in California, Florida, Illinois, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island and Washington, the The Associated Press reported.
No suspected or confirmed cases of the illness have been reported in Bartholomew County, local health officials said.
“That is something we’re going to add to our plans,” Phelps said. “We’re still working on putting the plan together.”
Phelps said he expects to have the plans — which were started in January and also include contingencies for cyberattacks, theft or vandalism of election equipment and weather-related disasters — completed and in place before early voting starts April 7.
The plan for infectious diseases will include safety measures for poll workers and voters, as well as how election officials would react, coordinate with local and state law enforcement, state agencies and communicate with the public in the event of an outbreak, Phelps said.
During the meeting, Phelps, as well as Bartholomew County Voter Registration and Elections Supervisor Shari Lentz, Voter Registration Deputy Taylor Seegraves and Bartholomew County Chief Deputy Clerk Dustin Renner, discussed COVID-19 and potential measures they could take locally if the outbreak spread to Bartholomew County.
Potential measures that could be put in place include hand sanitizer stations at every voting location and poll workers disinfecting electronic voting machines after each voter casts their ballots.
Additionally, Phelps said he would coordinate his office’s efforts with the Indiana Department of Homeland Security and the Indiana Secretary of State’s office, which oversees elections in Indiana.
Phelps said his office already has a “verbal plan” in place for these scenarios and his staff knows the general practices for how to deal with them, but no written, step-by-step plans have been drafted.
Indiana counties are not required to have written contingency plans, Phelps said.
“This is just one aspect of many (potential threats) we face, but because this is a new concept to Indiana and the country in terms of the contingency plans, we’re taking it step by step,” he said.
[sc:pullout-title pullout-title=”Where to learn more” ][sc:pullout-text-begin]
For more information about coronavirus, visit:
or
[sc:pullout-text-end]
