With the presidential election just weeks away, Boston University students hoping to vote while in quarantine or isolation housing might face added hurdles. Mail is not as easy to recieve when the University must reduce contact between these students and the rest of campus.
BU spokesperson Colin Riley said students who wish to receive mail or a package must either contact Residence Life or authorize a friend or roommate to obtain it.
Once the initial recipient of the mail delivers it to a specific ResLife office, a ResLife staff member will leave the deliveries outside the students’ doors, ensuring “no personal interaction,” Riley wrote in a follow-up email.
“We’re quite capable of providing them with any items they’re expecting in the mail,” Riley said.
He added that no one in isolation thus far has requested mail, but the protocol is the same for those in quarantine.
Despite the University’s efforts to ensure all students can receive mail whether they’re distanced from campus or not, some students are worried about a potential lack of oversight over their own ballots if they were to be placed in quarantine or isolation housing in the coming weeks.
College of Arts and Sciences junior Abby Sklar said she would not like to have a “middleman” in the vote-by-mail system, and that the idea is “troubling.”
“I definitely think it’s a problem that students don’t have the exact control,” Sklar said. “I cannot imagine being in a position where I felt out of control or that I had to wait or be at the mercy of somebody else deciding when my mail got dropped off.”
Sklar, who is registered to vote in Georgia, said she mailed in her ballot as soon as she received it and, despite having a month left before the deadline, is “still nervous” about whether it would be received on time.
Aasiya Norris, a sophomore in CAS, said if BU is going to be handling ballots in any capacity, she would like to see clear communication about mailing.
“If BU is going to send people’s mail out or give them their mail, that’s good, but they also need to have some sort of accountability factor,” Norris said. “I want to know that my ballot got put in the mail, when that happened. That’s something that’s really important to me.”
Homar Murillo, a sophomore in the Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, said knowing what students in quarantine and isolation housing have access to is important to being prepared to vote this year.
“Do these students also have access to a printer? Do they have access to an envelope? Do they have access to stamps?” Murillo said. “It’s a lot of questions and I don’t think BU has actually acknowledged them, or if they have already, what’s the new policy that they’re creating?”
Sklar said that having seen efforts by BU to facilitate voter participation, such as events held by BU Votes, the University must follow through on its commitment to push for students’ full access to the ballot.
“BU, I think, prides itself on being an institution that promotes voting,” Sklar said. “I just really hope that they don’t just talk the talk with these initiatives, but really try to make this process as easy as possible for those who are already under the stress of being in quarantine or isolation.”
Riley said students should understand the unpredictability of quarantine and isolation housing, and make voting plans accordingly.
“People need to realize they may have to quarantine or may have to be in isolation as they’ve tested positive over the next month, which would make it difficult for them to vote in person,” Riley said. “But if they are the student who’s requesting an absentee ballot, then they … need to know the dates that they need to have it postmarked.”
However, Riley said both BU’s plans and those of the United States Postal Service — which he himself had previously worked for for a decade — will provide a safe avenue for voting by mail. The obtention of ballots, Riley said, is up to the individual.
“When people were saying that they were concerned about the U.S. Postal Service’s ability to move mail, that’s really not going to be a problem,” Riley said. “They do it every day, particularly things that would be ballot-sized pieces.”
