This is an opinion column.
If this were the Three Little Pigs, Ohio is building its polling places out of bricks.
Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose is taking coronavirus seriously and has planned ahead of an outbreak rather than waiting for one to strike.
Ohio is getting ready.
Alabama insists this Big Bad Coronawolf is so overblown.
In Ohio, LaRose’s office is taking steps to protect the public and poll workers. They’re making sure citizens can safely exercise their right to vote while not compromising their personal safety.
Here are a few of the things Ohio is doing right.
- They are moving polling places out of senior citizen centers and other places where those at a higher risk of the disease could be exposed.
- They are encouraging citizens to vote early or vote by mail — both options Alabama doesn’t have.
- They are implementing curbside drop-off for absentee ballots.
- They are taking steps to keep voting machines clean and to protect the health of poll workers — who if you haven’t noticed at your polling place, typically aren’t spring chickens.
None of these measures is crazy.
None of these measures is panic-inducing.
None of these measures is especially expensive.
In an earlier time, you might have even called these steps conservative. And before I forget — LaRose is a Republican. This isn’t partisan. Not there, at least.
While a few of Ohio’s steps will require public employees to work a little harder, it’s a cheap insurance policy that protects voters’ most precious right.
But here? Such things are crazy talk.
Alabama has a runoff election in three weeks. But when I asked Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill about our plan in case coronavirus spreads, he tried to shut the conversation down. Not only would he not answer the question, but he seemed to get mad that I’d even asked.
“I’m going to tell you why we’re not going to talk about that,” Merrill said. “Because we don’t need for people to be concerned about something that may not ever happen. The story that you’re thinking about writing is not even important.”
I hope for all our sakes that he’s right. But if he’s not, then what happens?
“We follow the lead of the governor,” Merrill said. “We follow the lead of (State Health Officer) Dr. Scott Harris. We follow the lead of the Alabama Department of Health. When they tell us that we have a concern. That’s when we’ll introduce that to everybody.”
I asked him what the that was they’d introduce. Is there a secret plan?
“We’ll respond,” he said.
How?
“We’ll respond accordingly based on what information we have,” he said.
Merrill wouldn’t tell me any more than that.
“We don’t have any (coronavirus cases) yet,” he said. “So we don’t need to have our people have an increased level of anxiety.”
Three weeks ago, Italy had three reported coronavirus cases. Today that country is under lockdown, its hospitals are overrun, and it’s quarantined from the rest of the world. If there’s anything we’ve learned about this virus, it’s that it moves fast and it’s better to be prepared today than sorry later.
For now, Alabama is doing nothing.
Merrill insisted several times there’s nothing to stop anyone from voting absentee.
“If you want to vote absentee, you can go vote absentee right now,” he said.
Only, in Alabama, we don’t have no-excuse absentee voting, so that’s not true for everybody, or even most people. None of the legally acceptable excuses would cover someone who has to self-quarantine or someone who doesn’t want to expose themselves in a crowded setting on Election Day.
We’re not prepared.
We could change that, though. The Alabama Legislature is in session right now. The governor and lawmakers could start fixing these problems today.
Or Merrill could share the plan, if there is a plan. Or just borrow someone else’s.
But he won’t. Because Merrill isn’t LaRose. And this ain’t Ohio.
It’s Alabama, where we don’t build our houses out of bricks. Or sticks. Or straw.
Heck, we don’t even have a house.
Kyle Whitmire is the state political columnist for the Alabama Media Group.
You can follow his work on his Facebook page, The War on Dumb. And on Twitter. And on Instagram.
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