By: Laura Nunez
Posted: Oct 19, 2020 11:00PM CST
Denton- COVID-19 isn’t stopping people from turning out to the polls in record breaking numbers and voting without a mask is not a deal breaker in Texas.
Gov. Gregg Abbott’s executive order says masks are strongly encouraged at voting sites, but they are not required.
Abbott says he made this decision because he didn’t want voters to be turned away simply because they don’t have a mask.
Denton county voter Dillon Johnstone says he feels masks have almost become a partisan issue.
“At the polling location that I went to, which was the City of Denton’s Civic center, they had systems in place where they were sanitizing hand pens, and they were basically like, you need to stand so many feet apart when you're standing in line, and so it's kind of like one of those things is like, why in the world are you going to have all those things going on at your polling location, and yet, you're going to tell people that they don't need to wear a mask, it's just completely ridiculous to me,” said Johnstone.
Without a clear end to the pandemic in sight, it is unsettling for a few people to be in spaces where masks are deemed optional.
Alternate lead election judge Bill Herrera says he lost one of his democratic team members after realizing their republican counterparts were not willing to wear masks.
“He's an older gentleman and his wife has health issues, and he was very concerned that he was going to contract Coronavirus, you know, either through a voter or through one of the poll workers,” he said. “So unfortunately, he's no longer going to be working for my team and I'm having to scramble to find a replacement for him now,” said Herrera.
Medical experts have explained the importance of masks and social distancing to lessen the chances of spreading the virus.
Herrera says he was disappointed to learn that the lead judge at the polling site was approaching curbside voters without any kind of PPE or mask on.
“This really upset me, because I thought, you know, it's one thing to be disrespectful of the people, entering the poll location, but we know that curbside people are doing so because they're very fearful number one, or they are compromised in some way or they're handicapped, or they may have just gotten out of the hospital after having COVID,” he said. “And now they're trying to be very careful, so to have somebody approach their vehicle without a mask, and without gloves to have them cast their vote, I think is even more so disrespectful,” said Herrera.
Johnstone says regardless of who people choose to vote for, he believes everyone has a right to a safe voting environment.
“You deserve to have like a safe polling option to go to without this idea that somebody who has, at this point in time frequently potentially been exposed to a deadly disease, might cough or just breathe in your space,” said Johnstone.
Early voting will continue through Oct. 30, with election day on Nov. 3.
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