Iowans have fewer places to vote in the election as the coronavirus pushes officials to close and consolidate hundreds of polling locations across the battleground state.
Iowa has closed roughly one-quarter of its Election Day polling locations, down 261 polling places compared to 2016, according to NPR. Those losses haven’t been evenly distributed across the state — some rural counties were able to keep all of their polling sites while other predominately urban counties shuttered half.
The consolidation of polling locations, a trend which the report said was accelerated by the coronavirus and lack of poll workers, affects 30% of Iowa’s registered voters — roughly 670,000 people.
Across the country, nearly 21,000 polling locations have been eliminated ahead of Election Day. Though many states have attempted to compensate through various combinations of expanded early voting and mail-in voting, those efforts have not offset what Vice found to be a “patchwork” of cuts and expansions “seemingly aimed at suppressing turnout.”
Forty of the 45 states that do not regularly use all-mail voting decreased the number of Election Day voting locations compared to 2016. Five of those states and Washington, D.C., decided to use all-mail voting for this election. Some states, such as Maryland, have mailed every eligible voter an absentee ballot application, and 19 states require voters to apply for mail-in ballots themselves.
After the coronavirus pandemic rocked primary elections across the country, pushing states like Maryland to sent mail-in ballots to every registered voter, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended that election administrators “maintain or increase the total number of polling places available to the public on Election Day” so that people could better practice social distancing. “Unless there is no other option, do not increase the number of potential registered voters assigned to each polling place,” the guidance said.
Reducing the number of in-person voting locations can make it more difficult for lower-income people to vote. A recent study by Boston University and Harvard University found that whether or not voters had a car had a significant effect on their likelihood of voting. According to the study, 66% of voters with access to a vehicle voted in the 2018 midterm election — only 36% without access to a car voted.
The implications of the study in Iowa show a disproportionate effect on minority communities, where more than 1 in 4 black voters lack access to a car.
With just five days to go before Election Day, Iowa is also facing record-setting increases in daily coronavirus cases. The state has the highest seven-day caseload average since the pandemic began, breaking 2,000 on Thursday, according to the New York Times. Deaths and hospitalizations related to the coronavirus are also on the rise in the state. The state’s test positivity rate sits at 12.8% — well above the World Health Organization’s benchmark 5% positivity rate recommended before relaxing restrictions.
Iowa is a key battleground state on both President Trump’s and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s paths to the White House. FiveThirtyEight calls the election a “toss-up,” giving Trump 54-100 odds of claiming Iowa’s six electors.
