Letter to the Editor: Congress Needs to Provide More Funding for Elections to Protect Poll Workers and Voters

My name is Martin Wulfe, and I live in northern Silver Spring. I’m over 70, and I’ve had multiple respiratory infections throughout my life. So you could say I’m in a high-risk category. In January I volunteered to be an election judge, aka poll worker. There are a lot of others like me, and we will all require good PPE and sanitizing equipment.

Which will make this a very expensive election, even more so than usual. This is especially true here in Maryland if Governor Hogan insists on walk-in voting as usual, with mail-in only on request. It will all take money. Unless we have enough to pay for it, there will be chaos in November.

In the next few months, we must make sure that every voter — and poll worker — across the country has safe options to vote by mail, to vote early, and or course to vote on election day. Congress passed $400 million in funding for states to help pay for elections, but experts estimate it will cost at least $4 billion. Congress must do better.