OSMS Launches Voter Safety Guide to Help Voters Mitigate COVID-19 Transfer Risks

October 19, 2020 /3BL Media/ – While preparing for what may be the largest presidential election voter turnout recorded in the past century, the U.S. is grappling with a new record-breaking surge of COVID-19 infections. Over the past week alone, there have been an average of 53,120 new cases per day, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. Election officials and voters alike are seeking strategies for mitigating the risk of COVID-19 transfer during the voting process.

To respond to this critical need, Open Source Medical Supplies (OSMS) has teamed up with the Gear Up to VoteSafe initiative to launch a Voter Safety Guide: a collection of resources and best practices for safely voting in-person and curbing the spread of COVID-19.

“In this historic moment, the team at Open Source Medical Supplies wants to make sure that fear of COVID-19 infection doesn’t have to stop any member of our society from practicing their civic duty and making their voice heard,” shared Molly Rubenstein, Co-Executive Director at OSMS.

The Gear Up to VoteSafe initiative is a non-partisan effort to support safe voting during the pandemic. The initiative, launched by RESOLVE, VoteSafe, and Mission for Masks, is providing personal protective equipment (PPE) kits to election officials, poll workers, and volunteers. The OSMS team has collaborated with Gear Up to VoteSafe on this initiative and has compiled a collection of best practices, extracted from multiple guiding agencies, to create a series of interactive and informative safety guides for poll managers, poll workers, and voters. These guides support election centers and poll workers by providing concise guidance on how to conduct safer in-person voting, while also implementing strategies to protect voters as they carry out their civic responsibility. These free resources provided by OSMS are designed to help election officials and voters actively participate in the democratic process while responsibly addressing the realities of COVID-19 risk.

“This year safe voting is a civic duty.  Whether you’re an election official, poll worker, or a voter, the OSMS voter guides are critical resources. The protection is not just for us who volunteer or choose to vote in person, it’s for our families and friends, co-workers, and colleagues who we’ll be with after we vote,” said Stephen D'Esposito, President and CEO of RESOLVE.

“When we think about the right to free and fair elections in the United States, we rarely think about freedom from disease, nor fair and equitable access to information and protection. But this year, safety is front of mind for all citizens of this country, whether they are voters or election and poll workers. This voter safety guide will allow Mission for Masks, as distributors of PPE with Gear Up to VoteSafe, to feel confident that we are equipping democracy’s frontline workers with the facts they need to protect themselves and their fellow Americans,” said Jess Jacobs, co-founder of Mission for Masks.

“For anyone voting in person this year, we want to make sure that they and the poll workers serving them understand COVID-19 risk factors and have clear information on how to effectively use spacing, PPE, and sanitization to minimize the possible spread of the disease,” Rubenstein continued.

To access the Voter Safety Guide visit: https://osms.li/vote