Streets for Voting: A Guide for Improving the Pandemic Voting Experience

Suburban

Suburban areas feature a lower density of people and a higher concentration of open space than their urban counterparts. While streetside voting activity may be appropriate in some places, surface parking lots, regionserving parks, and campus-style school and government complexes may be adapted to meet physical distancing requirements.

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Streets for Voting: A Guide for Improving the Pandemic Voting Experience

Published on Oct 8, 2020

Street Plans

Despite a variety of ways to vote millions and millions of Americans will continue to vote in person on election day in 2020. Where this occurs, physical distancing requirements and/or indoor capacity restrictions, the reduction of available polling locations, potential poll worker shortages, and the specter of reduced United States Postal Service capacity may lead to long and uncomfortable lines. If the 2020 primary and past presidential elections are used as a guide, voting could be very difficult for millions of Americans this November. Planned for or not, the spatial footprint required to conduct the 2020 presidential election is likely to grow across many urban, suburban, and even rural polling locations. Even with Americans exercising their right to use alternative voting methods, finding the available space to accommodate high turnout with physical distancing requirements while ensuring universal access and minimizing discomfort, is an essential urban design challenge.