September 22, 2020
Photos The Associated Press
Letter carriers load mail trucks for deliveries at a USPS facility in McLean, Vir. on Sept 17.
Mail-in ballot controversies heat up Angela Ly
Managing Editor Part three of an ongoing series Controversial changes at the U.S. Postal Service that slowed mail nationwide were overturned Sept. 17 by a U.S. judge who called the changes “a politically motivated attack on the efficiency of the Postal Service.”
A nationwide injunction was issued after 14 states sued the Trump administration and the USPS. The judge ordered the reinstallation of mail processing machines to ensure the prompt handling of all election mail, according to The Associated Press. Now, as the nation inches closer to the November election, the matter of third-party candidate placement on those ballots is heating up in Texas. Third-party candidates have
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been fighting to stay on the November ballot, with Green Party candidates recently getting approval from the Texas Supreme Court on Sept. 15. The same cannot be said for the Libertarians. According to AP, this could potentially split Democratic votes in certain races. To be eligible to vote-by-mail in Texas, constituents must be 65 or older, disabled, be out of the county during the entire early voting period and Election Day, or be confined in jail, but eligible to vote. The application needs to be received 11 days before the presidential election, Nov. 3, which means the county must receive the application by Oct. 23. Voting by mail is a two-step process. The first step is submitting an application. Those who are eligible should download the application online, which can be accessed through nonpartisan political organizations, such as the League of Women Voters of Dallas at www.lwvdallas.org. Texas voters may also request an application through the secretary of state’s office or their county’s website. By choosing the latter option, voters will receive a prestamped envelope. Whichever option is selected, constituents need to complete the application and mail it back, paying careful attention to their signature. Their respective websites are www. sos.texas.gov and www.dallascounty.org. “Your signature actually matters in this case more than any other signature that you do,” said Barbara Larkin, the director of voter
registration for the LWV Dallas. “That first signature is important because they’re going to compare it with the signature you actually sign your ballot.” The second step would be to complete the ballot. After receiving a vote-by-mail application, a ballot will be mailed to eligible voters, which will need to be also signed and turned back in. The signatures on the application and ballot are then compared for authenticity. According to Larkin, digital pictures of the signatures are taken and used to deter fraud. Larkin explains the definition of being disabled according to the Texas Election Code. “A sickness or physical condition that prevents a voter from appearing at the polling place on Election Day without a likelihood of needing personal assistance or injuring the voter’s health,” she said. Disabilities preventing individuals from going to polls can range from any physical or mental condition, with voters’ privacy protected even on the absentee ballot application. Voters simply check the disability box without having to disclose any specifics. “Anyone who thinks they have a disability of any variety, go ahead and apply for a voteby-mail ballot and check the disability box. It is their decision whether they have a disability that would cause their health to be injured by voting,” Larkin said. “There’s no one who has the authority to ask you, ‘what’s your disability?’”
Barbara Gandica Design Editor
I’m sure that most of us have questioned ourselves about whether to get tested for COVID-19 or not. Even if we are not experiencing symptoms, we grapple with the fact that we might be asymptomatic carriers of the virus. The Centers for Disease Control recommends that you should get tested if you’re experiencing symptoms or have been in contact with someone who has tested positive, despite the fact that several areas of the country have struggled with a shortage of COVID-19 test kits. North Texas is no exception but, unlike the earlier months of the pandemic, tests have become more available as the year has progressed. In addition to tests provided by local pharmacy chains, North Texans can get a free test by going to the website https://www. gogettested.com/where they can book a test in various places throughout the Metroplex. To get tested, you must first fill a quick questionnaire that asks some basic questions. Then you can choose the time and place and go get the test. I went through this process with my mom a few weeks ago. She is an essential worker in the shipping industry and there was the possibility that she had encountered a co-worker who tested positive for the virus. The process was surprisingly easy and fast. After booking the appointment the night
before, we went to the testing site. We were scared that it was going to be a nasal exam like had seen in the news, but the test was a quick and painless oral exam. The workers took precautions such as constant sanitation and social distancing when possible. We were told that the results for the test would take two to three days, but mine actually arrived the day after the test. It thankfully came out negative for both of us. The testing experience has changed as the year has gone by. During the earlier months of the pandemic, you were required to have a doctor’s note or severe symptoms to get tested. That was the experience that Cecilia Stevenson had when she got COVID-19 during the height of the pandemic. Stevenson is a local professional videographer. When the quarantine started, she and her roommates produced a parody video called “Stay Homemah-mah.” If you had Lady Gaga’s song “Poker Face” stuck in your head during the late 2000s, prepare to have it take hold again. Published in April during the height of the pandemic, the video shows how our lives have completely shifted due to the pandemic. “We tried to, kind of, capture what it’s been like living quarantine,” said Stevenson in a Chronicle TV interview with Dara Jones. “Experiences that we all can relate to.” The video is comedy gold. If you need a break from all of the hard news, I would recommend giving it a watch. You can watch at https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtR9cGT9XQM.
Cars wait in line for drive-thru COVID-19 nasal swab tests Sept. 18 in Dallas.
Soon after releasing the video, Stevenson got the virus. She and a group of friends attended a wedding and caught the virus from the bride and groom. Of all her friends, Stevenson, caught it the worst and experienced a bad fever. Her experience with testing was more involved and time-consuming. She was tested at CVS where the process is done by yourself with instructions from a pharmacist. CVS offers different kinds of tests that vary in the length of time to process the results.
Stevenson’s results took 13 days to arrive and came out positive. She quarantined with her friends from the wedding, separating from her roommates to avoid exposing them to the virus. Stevenson was cured and, like most of us, is staying at home and socially distancing so we can decrease the spread of the virus. “Stay homemah-mah.” Check out the full interview at www.richlandstudentmedia.com/stevenson
RichlandStudentMedia.com
Adventures in COVID-19 testing and quarantining
