Health protocols enforced during the novel coronavirus crisis have made it effectively impossible for some infected patients to vote in elections, a possible violation of their constitutional rights.

Patients with mild conditions are supposed to stay at hotels or other facilities for recuperation, even on election days. Although absentee and early voting are available, these systems have proved insufficient to deal with the problem as the virus continues to spread around the nation.

Local governments are calling for legal revisions ahead of the Lower House election scheduled for autumn at the latest.

In the Tokyo governor’s election in July last year, polling stations were not installed at accommodation facilities for COVID-19 patients because of the “high risk of election staff being infected.”

On March 21, infected individuals at such lodging sites could not cast their ballots in the Chiba governor’s election.

Immediately before the election, then Chiba Governor Kensaku Morita asked “the state to hold discussions” on the problem.

The internal affairs ministry has since recommended setting up polling stations in hotels where COVID-19 patients are staying.

But a staff member of the election administration commission in Chiba Prefecture said legal changes are needed.

“Many patients are cooped up, so implementing measures like the ones suggested by the internal affairs ministry is difficult,” the official said. “The Public Offices Election Law or the coronavirus special measures law need to be revised to realize absentee balloting at hotels.”

Official campaigning started on April 11 for the Nagoya mayor’s election on April 25, but patients in isolation will likely be unable to vote.

Election officials have cited the difficulty of disinfecting all things and places touched by infected voters and safely removing ballots from polling places in their accommodation facilities.

COVID-19 patients at hotels are not allowed to go out for 10 or so days following the onset of the disease, and they can only move in specific areas in such facilities. The rules make it impossible for them to venture outdoors to vote during the period.

Under the Public Offices Election Law, those unable to vote on election days have two options available: early voting and absentee balloting.

But municipalities responsible for administrative procedures in local elections view both alternatives as unrealistic in the coronavirus crisis.

The early voting mechanism is intended for voters who cannot visit balloting places on time, but they can only vote in the municipalities where they reside. COVID-19 patients stuck in hotels outside their municipalities are out of luck.

Absentee balloting allows not only people staying outside election sites but also hospitalized individuals to cast ballots at specially installed voting sites or facilities if certain conditions are met. They can also vote by mail.

But these options appear inapplicable for COVID-19 patients.

The Public Offices Election Law stipulates that voting at dedicated polling zones in hotels must be done in the presence of observers. However, a problem lies in how to protect election staff from infection by patients at those places.

In addition, hotels are not listed under the law’s category of specified facilities, which include medical centers and care homes, where absentee voting is possible.

COVID-19 patients staying at accommodation facilities are not eligible for postal voting, which is designed for people who cannot go out without assistance because of serious physical disorders or other reasons.

The central government deems postal voting as exceptional because it is conducted without observers. To ensure fairness, the government remains cautious about expanding the system’s scope.

The internal affairs ministry on March 10 sent a notification to the election administration panels in Hokkaido, Nagano and Hiroshima prefectures on how to hold national elections in the pandemic.

The notice says recuperating COVID-19 patients can vote “if polling stations are introduced for early and absentee balloting within lodging facilities.” The ministry had in mind two by-elections and one re-election for Diet seats scheduled for April 25.

The notice did little to erase growing concerns among local governments that many voters would be unable to take part in the next Lower House election unless legislation is amended for COVID-19 patients.

The April 25 elections are seen as a test of whether the national election can be properly held for all voters.

A Sapporo city election committee official in charge of administrative procedures for the Lower House by-election in the Hokkaido No. 2 constituency remains skeptical.

“We will not make polling available at accommodation facilities because it would be impossible to keep election staff away from coronavirus patients,” the official said.

Working with the Hokkaido election board, the Sapporo voting committee in late March submitted a request to the central government and other entities to allow COVID-19 patients to vote by mail.

The Hiroshima prefectural election administration commission and other entities said on April 8 that early voting stations will be set up in four hotels. As of April 7, 47 COVID-19 patients were recuperating at those hotels.

The internal affairs ministry said Hiroshima Prefecture is the first in the nation to take such a measure for a Diet election.

Akira Kurata, a constitutional professor at Ritsumeikan University’s School of Law, who is knowledgeable about the Public Offices Election Law, said that leaving elections inaccessible to infected voters could go against the Constitution.

“It can be said that universal suffrage guaranteed by the Constitution is being infringed upon,” Kurata said.

He said the rights of people to express their opinions through elections must be protected, and that the Diet should have reviewed the Public Offices Election Law when it revised the coronavirus special measures law.

“An environment should have been established via countermeasures, such as reinforcing the postal voting system, so that coronavirus patients recovering at hotels can vote,” he said. “A mechanism should be developed as soon as possible to enable even those who have tested positive to cast ballots.”

(This article was written by Kana Yamada, Susumu Imaizumi and Takahiro Okubo.)