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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]This is ridiculous. Is it really unsafe to go forward with the voting while schools in session? 
-teacher [/quote]

This reminds me so much of people trying to come up with alternative solutions during COVID and just being told that nothing was possible, there are no solutions other than schools remaining closed.

At my kids’ school (elementary), voting is done in the cafeteria in the front of the school and voters use the main front entrance. There is no real reason why they couldn’t use the gym toward the rear of the school, which has its own entrance/exit (an emergency exit, so would have to be disabled but I know this is possible as events are sometimes set up in the gym and can be loaded directly from the blacktop outside). Close the doors from the gym to the school hallway. People come in to the gym directly from school grounds and leave out the same door. Cancel PE classes for that one day, or have them meet outside, weather permitting, or have them do health activities in the classroom. Kids can still eat in the cafeteria which I know is important as we have about a 20% FARMS rate. An elections official can monitor the entrance and exit, and elections officials could use dividers and signs to point the way as it will be different than usual.

There are solutions - they just don’t want to do the work to do them because it’s far easier to close the schools. With most people voting early these days, turnout at these special elections is quite low anyway. I checked and for the 2025 general election - obviously a much larger election than the one coming up in April - we had less than 1000 votes cast on Election Day. The ballot measure will probably have half that. [/quote]

Parking is also an issue. We cannot fit our full staff in our lot when school is in session. Many need to park on the street. Parking to vote would be a nightmare. [/quote]

Sure if it was a regular election, but we’re closed for those. Which makes sense. With this election there will probably be 500-600 people showing up on Election Day, ALL DAY from 7-7 or whenever it is. I always vote on ED and ever since early voting started in Virginia in 2016 or whenever it was, it’s always very slow. They could reserve a few spots in the parking lot for voters, or direct them to the bus loop between certain hours when no one is coming or going and after school. Or people or teachers might have to park in the neighborhoods. But I think they could make it work for an off-year, last minute midterm election on a ballot issue. This is not something that is going to attract huge crowds of voters. [/quote]

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