The town of New Ipswich received just over half of the Plexiglass shields it requested from the state to protect workers and voters at the upcoming primary election.
Town Moderator Bob Romeril said the town requested 18 “sneeze guards” to set up in front of the ballot clerk, supervisors of the checklist and other poll workers at the Sept. 8 primary, planned for the Mascenic high school gym. At Tuesday’s Select Board meeting, Romeril reported the state would issue the town 11 of the sneeze guards.
“We have none for the clerk on the other side of the room, we have none for the person who’s doing return to independent at the primary, and they’re providing nothing to go around the ballot machine,” Romeril – who’ll be one of those standing at the ballot machine on Sept. 8 – said.
A letter sent out by Secretary of State Bill Gardner in July said that “the quantity of PPE being issued has been calculated using the number of voters who cast ballots at the 2016 state primary and 2016 general election, the most recent elections similar to this fall’s elections,” with adjustments made for an expected increase in both overall voter turnout and in absentee ballots.
In 2016, 638 people cast in-person votes at the primary in New Ipswich, and 2,640 in the general election.
The town will receive 59 N95 masks, 1,181 surgical masks, 19 face shields, 1,771 pairs of gloves, 24 gowns and three gallons of hand sanitizers, along with other smaller items, according to a spreadsheet provided to the town by the Secretary of State’s office.
To fill the gaps in coverage, Romeril said he’s ordered some high-grade marine plastic and PVC so the town can create its own sneeze guards, which workers can put in place at the primary election in September and the general election in November – and maybe beyond.
“Who knows how long we’ll need to use them?” Romeril said, wondering if they’d still be needed in March. “God willing, everyone will be vaccinated by then, but it’s hard to vaccinate 300 million people in 90 days, if it’s available Jan. 1. So we might need to use these things again.”
The town is also expected to tape off every other voting booth and space out seated voting areas with fewer voters per table. If Governor Sununu’s mask mandate for gathering of 100 or more people is still in effect on election day, town officials will have to either limit the amount of people in the building at one time, or hand out masks to those who don’t bring their own.
Romeril said he expects a much higher percentage of voters to use absentee ballots for the primary this year compared to 2016, when 28 people voted absentee. This year, he said, they’ve already received 70 requests.
“Hopefully a lot of people will go to absentee ballots,” he said. “Right now, it looks like we’ll have at least triple what we had for the last primary.”
Romeril said that the town can begin processing – but not counting – absentee ballots before election day, making note of who has already cast a vote via one method or another to ensure no one votes twice.
Voters can request an absentee ballot from the state’s website or from the town clerk’s office. Romeril urged voters to turn in their absentee ballots as early as possible via mail or through a mail slot at the town office.
“I don’t know what’s got into the postal service,” he said, “but it sure is running slow. The earlier people can get their absentee ballots in, the better.”