Early Voting Begins With Pandemic Safety Precautions

Early voting begins Thursday for the June 30 election in Oklahoma.

Polling locations have special precautions to keep voters and workers safe during the pandemic.

Markers outside the Oklahoma County Election Board building will help keep voters six feet apart.

Workers will wear masks to prevent spread of germs, and signs encourage voters to do the same.

“We're going to do our best to protect ourselves and also the public, and certainly it's up to the public, but we'd greatly appreciate it if they would also take precautions,” Doug Sanderson, secretary of the Oklahoma County Election Board said.

Everything voters are used to seeing, from the sign in area to the ballot boxes, are now spread out for social distancing.

Each voter will be given one pen or ballot marker to use throughout the process, which won’t be shared by anyone else.

“The precinct officials have a protocol. They will all be wearing masks and have proper equipment on. Periodically they will clean the area where voters are,” Sanderson said.

These early voting precautions will carry over to the designated polling places for the June 30 vote.

Sanderson said nearly 50,000 people are using the vote by mail option this election.

By comparison, during this election in the last presidential race year, only 9409 Oklahoma County residents voted by mail.

It's too late to register to vote by mail ballot for next week's vote, but there is plenty of time to do so before November.

“People just need to contact their local county election board office,” Sanderson said.

 More information can be found at the Oklahoma County Election Board website.