Emergency Voting Center Changes

If the spread of COVID-19 (coronavirus) threatens to impact your plans for voting centers, it's very important to communicate this fully, both internally and externally. You can find the latest public statement from Democrats Abroad on this topic here.

1. Consult chair@democratsabroad.org, gpp@democratsabroad.org and comms@democratsabroad.org, as well as your RVC if you believe city-wide quarantines or other actions may force your voting center to be canceled.
2. The team will discuss options with you, considering the following factors (among other things): local and national ordinances, international recommendations (WHO, CDC), venue and volunteer availability, local context.
3. If it is determined that any voting center must be canceled, we MUST get a waiver from the DNC and immediately notify campaigns, the State Department, and members.
4. The Global Chair will immediately request the waiver from the DNC, plus notify the campaigns, and state department.
5. You should email all members with your voting center information.
6. You should email all media to provide an update to them as well.
   *For both media and members, the priority message is: While in-person voting may not be possible, Americans in (location) can still vote remotely from anywhere! + link to democratsabroad.org/primary. 
   Ex: We're closing our voting center location on Tuesday for the safety of our members and the community, but the good news is that Democrats Abroad in China can still vote in the global presidential primary, by downloading their ballot at democratsabroad.org/primary and they can even return it via email.
7. Cancel your events on social media and the website, and post a statement explaining the situation. Example here.
   Do NOT just delete your events, but explicitly write Canceled due to public health guidance  or similar at the top. People may go looking for an event posting and will be confused when they can't find it.
8. You should update your social media feeds with this information, and share these links with comms@democratsabroad.org.
9. If access to the site location is possible, post a sign at the venue location noting the closure and pointing voters to remote voting. 
   **CLICK HERE** to use this sign for your local voting center. Go to File → Download → Microsoft Word or File → Make a Copy, and update the highlighted text before printing.
   
   Sample
   
10. We strongly recommend posting a volunteer at the location to guide voters to remote voting, if local ordinances and the situation allow it. We would very much encourage you to approximate a Ballot Assistance Event as closely as possible. Some voters will likely not hear about the voting center change until it is too late, and providing this extra bit of support will help to address any disappointment caused by canceling in-person voting.
11. IF possible run social or other ads with the redirect to remote voting.