LIVE 5 ALERT DESK: AARP talks about voting concerns for seniors including safety, deadlines and guidelines.

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) - AARP says they are committed to making sure Americans age 50-plus can vote safely during the pandemic and have their voices heard.

AARP South Carolina Associate State Director for Advocacy and Campaigns Patrick Cobb discussed how to vote safely from home or in-person.

To these ends, Cobb spoke on how to find polling places, what ID may be necessary in order to vote, key voting deadlines, and what safety measures will be taken at the polling locations.

“We’re very fortunate that the governor in the in the legislature did put in a plan b for the elections for South Carolina,” Cobb said. “Because with the coronavirus and the pandemic a lot of folks took advantage of that primary absentee voting opportunity during the primary in June we saw record numbers of folks voting.”

“You have to remember also the 2020 election is the first time that South Carolina voters will use the new touchscreen ballot machines in a general election so there’s going to be maybe a little bit of confusion for folks on how to do that,” Cobb said. “If they vote in person, making sure that they use the social distancing that we’ve gotten used to -- wearing masks. Make sure you take your own pen to sign in on the precinct roster when you sign in to vote, and be respectful of the poll managers and poll workers. They’ll give you a cotton swab so you won’t have to touch the machine and those machines are being cleaned hourly.”

Cobb said that for more information citizens could visit AARP’s election 2020 webpage or their South Carolina Votes webpage.

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