Using Healthcare Workers to Count Votes in Pennsylvania

[nothingcontroversial]

So, this is sort of politics related and sort of Covid related, so if it gets moved to one of those threads, that's fine with me.

Pennsylvania has a state law that mail-in ballots cannot be counted until Election Day. The Republicans had the law passed. Then, they use it to cry "voter fraud" when a Republican is winning before all of the mail-in votes are counted, and then the Republican loses after the mail-in votes are counted. It caused problems in 2020.

Anyway, Allegheny County, which is the county where Pittsburgh is located, requires county employees to be "all hands on deck" for Election Day duties. This leads to county-employed healthcare workers, such as doctors for the county health department, doing stuff such as counting votes. This practice is now getting criticized.

This seems like a poor use of resources. At the same time, Pennsylvania is under A LOT of pressure to get the votes counted as quickly as possible. 

Doctor denounces Allegheny County's use of health workers to count votes

[bronxgirl]

That's interesting. I had no idea. I have feelings but seem to be having trouble articulating them.

[livinitup]

If anyone is saying that health care workers don’t need to worry about actively participating in free and fair elections, then they are not paying attention.

[basilosaurus]

Nov 8, 2022 22:21:51 GMT -5 livinitup said:

If anyone is saying that health care workers don’t need to worry about actively participating in free and fair elections, then they are not paying attention.

Sure they do, but using people who are so completely burned out to ensure democracy continues just seems using people who've already given so much.