Mobile County Schools Go Virtual on Election Day as Erwin Urges Other Alabama Systems to Consider the Model

MOBILE, Ala. — Many Mobile County school buildings will be busy on Tuesday, but not with students.

Mobile County Public Schools has designated Nov. 3 as a virtual distance learning day, allowing schools that also serve as polling places to welcome voters without the traffic and scheduling conflicts of a normal school day. Lee County Schools has done the same.

The arrangement could affect about 50,000 students in Mobile County and about 9,000 in Lee County. Most public schools elsewhere in Alabama, including Auburn City Schools, Birmingham City Schools and Jefferson County Schools, will hold class as usual.

A pandemic-era change that stuck

Mobile County Probate Judge Mark Erwin, the county’s top election official, said the practice began during the pandemic and has remained because it worked.

“That’s actually one sort of little bit of silver lining to our COVID era experience was that we were able to get an agreement with the Mobile County School System that these facilities would use a virtual day on our election days in order to keep the confusion over traffic to a minimum, on the pickup and drop-off lines for parents,” Erwin said.

The change also spares schools from having to work around voters during the day. If a polling place is set up in a library or gym, Erwin said, students’ normal activities have to be rearranged.

At the time, he said, social distancing requirements from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention sent election officials looking for bigger spaces.

“Larger facilities such as gymnasiums were what we were targeting and the schools had those,” he said. “So, we have rearranged a good portion of our precinct geography in the county to accommodate using more school locations and larger churches that had bigger facilities. We’ve just been able to kind of hold that over and make it part of our routine for the last several cycles.”

Why schools work as polling places

Erwin described school campuses as a natural fit for elections.

“They offer really the best opportunity for all the things we look for,” he said. “Whether it’s ADA compliance, sufficient parking, lighting when it’s either dark in the morning or dark in the evening, all of those things we can count on being what we need at school locations.”

He also thanked school leaders for their help.

“We appreciate very much the cooperation with the Superintendent and the principals of various schools we use to help us with that,” Erwin said. “It is just another thing to lessen the frustration of the parents a little bit and also lessen the frustration of the voters.”

Could other systems follow?

Erwin said the approach has been successful enough that he would recommend it to other counties, although he has not yet raised it with colleagues around the state.

“It might be worth having the State Department of Education encouraging from the state level on down for the county and city schools systems to use school facilities for voting where they’re available,” he said.

In his view, the whole community comes out ahead.

“It’s good for everybody and the voter gets the benefit of a large space with ample parking and ADA accessibility to cast their ballot,” Erwin said.