NCDHHS Provides Guidelines for Voters and Polling Locations as Early Voting Begins | Eastern North Carolina Now

Press Release:

    RALEIGH     The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services is providing guidelines for voters and local polling locations to help protect the health of North Carolinians during the voting process. In addition, NCDHHS and the NC Department of Public Safety Division of Emergency Management provided personal protective equipment to local election boards and locations.

    North Carolina residents who plan to vote in-person should wear a face mask and keep it on throughout the voting process, stay 6 feet apart from others while at the polling location, and wash their hands with soap and water for 20 seconds before and after voting.

    "Everyone should make their voting plan, and just like going to the grocery store, take your mask and wait apart from others. I'll be voting in person during early voting," said NCDHHS Secretary Mandy K. Cohen, M.D.

    NCDHHS also issued guidelines to local polling locations to protect people while they vote, work or volunteer at voting locations. Masks are required in public and voting places must have enough masks to provide one to anyone who does not have one. If a voter has an exception for wearing a mask, election workers should try to accommodate them and should not turn voters away.

    Election workers at voting locations must routinely clean and disinfect high-touch areas, such as doors, tables and chairs, with an EPA-approved disinfectant for SARS-CoV-2 — the virus that causes COVID-19 — especially during peak voting times. Many locations are providing single-use pens to voters.

    The guidelines, adapted from the CDC's Considerations for Election Polling Locations and Voters, also require elections officials to post signage at each voting place reminding voters and workers about social distancing by staying at least 6 feet away from others. Officials are required to provide physical markers, such as tape on floors or signs on walls, to help ensure people remain at least 6 feet apart.

    Additionally, county boards of elections must:

  • Require election workers and observers to wear a mask when social distancing is or may not be possible, unless they state an exception applies.
  • Require election workers to encourage people to wear a mask while they vote or campaign and offer masks to those who are not wearing them.

    To monitor the health of elections workers, county boards of elections are required to:

  • Immediately separate and send home election workers who have symptoms when they arrive at work or become sick during the day.
  • Conduct daily symptom screening of workers before opening the voting place each day.
  • Post signage at the main entrance asking people who have a fever and/or a cough not to enter. Signage from the NCDHHS Know your Ws campaign is available to download.

    All 100 county election offices have received gloves and face shields for poll workers; disposable masks for workers and others who do not have a mask; and hand sanitizer, disinfectant spray and paper towels. Anheuser-Busch and McDonald's donated a portion of the hand sanitizer to the Association of State Election Directors. NCDHHS and NCDPS are providing the rest of the supplies and equipment. Additionally, the NC State Board of Elections is sending single-use pens to county election offices for use as needed.

    Interim Guidance for Election Voting Locations and guidelines for Voting Safely During COVID-19 can be found HERE.


  • NC Department of Health and Human Services
  • 2001 Mail Service Center
  • Raleigh, NC 27699-2001
  • Ph: (919) 855-4840
  • news@dhhs.nc.gov

Go Back


Leave a Guest Comment

Your Name or Alias
Your Email Address ( your email address will not be published)
Enter Your Comment ( no code or urls allowed, text only please )




A Fall Fete in the Cotswolds North Carolina Health, Body & Soul, Health and Fitness NCDHHS Announces First Flu-Related Death of the 2020-21 Flu Season


HbAD0

Latest Health and Fitness

The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services is launching a Community Partner Engagement Plan to ensure the voices of North Carolina communities and families continue to be at the center of the department’s work.
The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services will host a live Spanish-language Cafecito and tele-town hall on Tuesday, Feb. 27, from 6 to 7 p.m., to discuss how to support and improve heart health as well as prevent and manage heart disease.
Part of ongoing effort to raise awareness and combat rising congenital syphilis cases
Recognition affirms ECU Health’s commitment to providing highly-reliable, human-centered care
The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services is launching a new Statewide Peer Warmline on Feb. 20, 2024. The new Peer Warmline will work in tandem with the North Carolina 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline by giving callers the option to speak with a Peer Support Specialist.
A subsidiary of one of the largest health insurance agencies in the U.S. was hit by a cyberattack earlier this week from what it believes is a foreign “nation-state” actor, crippling many pharmacies’ ability to process prescriptions across the country.
The John Locke Foundation is supporting a New Bern eye surgeon's legal fight against North Carolina's certificate-of-need restrictions on healthcare providers.
The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services today released the following statement on the Trails Carolina investigation:
The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services today released a draft of its 2024-25 Olmstead Plan designed to assist people with disabilities to reside in and experience the full benefit of inclusive communities.

HbAD1

The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services will host a live fireside chat and tele-town hall on Tues., Feb. 20, from 6 to 7 p.m., to discuss how to support and improve heart health as well as prevent and manage heart disease.
The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services is investing $5.5 million into the FIT Wellness program, part of the North Carolina Formerly Incarcerated Transition Program in the UNC School of Medicine, to improve reentry services for the justice-involved population.
As of Feb. 1, 2024, 346,408 newly eligible North Carolinians are enrolled in Medicaid and now have access to comprehensive health care, according to the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services’ Medicaid Expansion Enrollment Dashboard.
Controversy surrounds a healthcare provider’s decision to block parents from having access to their children’s prescription records.
Members of the North Carolina Rural Health Association (NCRHA) visited Washington, D.C., on Feb. 14, 2024, to meet with elected officials and advocate for policies to improve access to care in rural areas.
The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services today released the request for proposal to hire the organization that will help manage the Children and Families Specialty Plan.
As part of its commitment to improve the health and well-being of North Carolina children and families, the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services today announced the launch of its Child Behavioral Health dashboard.
February is National Children's Dental Health Month, and the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services is emphasizing the importance of children's dental hygiene to overall health and well-being.

HbAD2

 
Back to Top