By GREGORY ZELLER //
Staffers at several Northwell Health hospitals are helping hospital patients cast absentee ballots, including patients who might not otherwise be able to vote.
The all-volunteer “Vote North” effort actually began in 2018 at Northwell’s at Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan; for Election 2020, the initiative has spread to seven health system hospitals, including Plainview Hospital and North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset.
At NSUH, more than 70 staff members, from doctors to nurses to non-medical support staff, volunteered to canvass inpatient populations on Sunday and Monday of this week, asking if patients were registered to vote and whether they’d voted before being admitted to the hospital.
As per New York State law, which allows hospitalized patients to obtain and cast absentee ballots through Election Day, volunteers across the Northwell Health system spent Monday and Tuesday coordinating with county Boards of Elections, acquiring absentee ballots for patients wanting to vote and returning them – in person – to the proper polling places.
As of Tuesday afternoon, dozens of Northwell Health volunteers were racing to return the absentee ballots before polls close Tuesday night.
In person: Northwell Health volunteers are helping inpatients obtain and file absentee ballots.
There are many moving parts in the multifaceted “Vote North” program, but even for frontline healthcare workers who’ve been through the worst of the pandemic once already, and are bracing for another tough stretch, the effort is well worth it, according to NSUH Director of Patient Experience Juan Contreras.
“We want to give our patients the opportunity to do something that they wouldn’t be able to without us,” Contreras said. “We have so many volunteers eager to make that happen.”
By Monday, 100 NSUH inpatients had requested absentee ballots, according to Northwell Health. Among them: “Uncle Johnny” from the syndicated “Elvis Duran and the Morning Show,” known to family and friends as Manhattan resident John Marino, who was recently admitted to the Manhasset hospital’s Cardiothoracic Unit.
Like thousands of other Northwell patients – including inpatients at Northern Westchester Hospital in Mount Kisco, Phelps Hospital in Sleepy Hollow and Staten Island University Hospital’s North and South campuses – Marino had his absentee ballot hand-delivered by a health system volunteer on Tuesday to his registered NYC polling place.
“I’m very pleased that I will be able to vote,” Marino said in a statement. “I believe everyone should exercise their right to vote.”
