I’m reluctant to raise this topic. So much of the media discussion of swine flu seems intended to scare, not inform. The government’s basic advice — to go about your business, but wash your hands, stay home if you’re sick, etc. — seems perfectly reasonable. The state shouldn’t do anything that would add to the fear.
But I wonder about the impact the swine flu might have on turnout in the special election. Schools are closing. Some public events are being delayed. And some people seem to be staying inside out of an abundance of caution. It’s a strange time, then, to ask people to get out and vote. And many polling places are schools, after all.
A lifelong student of California politics — someone much older and wise than me — suggested to me earlier this week that the state needs to take a hard look at postponing the election, particularly if the situation grows more serious. And perhaps, even if it’s only the fear about the flu, and not the flu itself, that grows. Apparently, the state is studying the issue. In response to my question about the special election and the state’s rules for postponing elections in the event of pandemics, earthquakes or other serious problems, Kate Folmar, press secretary to Secretary of State Debra Bowen, emailed:
"This issue has been on Secretary Bowen’s radar for a few days now. The Secretary and her staff are taking a careful look into how, if at all, a serious medical event could affect the Statewide Special Election on May 19. When that analysis is complete, I will let you know."
The governor also got a similar question Thursday during an event in Fairfield. He didn’t really address the flu concern, other than to suggest that people vote absentee. He then launched into a pitch for the measures. From the transcript sent out by the governor’s office:
QUESTION: (Inaudible) special election and as the swine flu numbers go up, are you at all concerned about turnout on election day? And what would you say to somebody who might be concerned about standing in line on election day next to somebody who is sick?
GOVERNOR: Well, I think that we have seen there’s a tremendous amount of people will be voting by absentee. I think, because it will be in general a low turnout, we want the people to turn out, we want everyone to be involved, because it’s a very important subject, to fix our budget system once and for all. Here’s an opportunity to do that.
And as you see, that the people themselves still are confused in which way they want to go with those ballot initiatives. The latest poll shows that people don’t want to have their taxes raised but at the same time they also don’t want to have any cuts made. When they were asked about 10 of the important areas, they said no to cuts in health care, they said no to cuts in education, they said no to cuts in environmental issues, they said no to cuts in law enforcement. And they went down the line and said no to all of those things. So I think that there is still confusion there.
But we are going to get the message out there with the initiatives. We want to make sure that, if there is really 60, 70 percent of the voters are absentee, that they get the message, they know how we feel about it and how we’re going to fix the budget thing.
And I don’t want to use this as a political event here, because they’re two different things but I think we’ve got to move the state forward. And as you can see with the pandemic now and with other disasters, we need to have money put aside. We need to have money in a rainy day fund. We need to have money in a reserve and the only way we’re going to get that done is if we have a good financial system in place and a good budget system in place."
Knowing what we know now, it doesn’t make any sense to postpone the election. Even if things get scarier on the flu front, it’s probably not feasible to postpone the election–people are already voting after all. But I wonder if the state, for example, could find a way to extend the deadlines for applying for and for turning in absentee ballots, permitting ballots to come in a few days after May 19. Everyone who wants to vote should be able to vote. Swine flu — even irrational, media-inspired fear of swine flu — shouldn’t get in the way of that.