CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Around 1,000 poll workers in Kanawha County are gathering up voting ballots and everything else they will need ahead of Tuesday’s General Election.
Monday was a busy day at the Voter’s Registration Office in Kanawha County as those poll workers were coming in and out picking up supplies to take to their assigned voting locations across the 183 county precincts.
Vera McCormick
Kanawha County Clerk Vera McCormick told MetroNews they will be ready bright and early for the big day.
“We’ll be ready in the morning, our poll workers are to be there at the precincts at 5:30 a.m., and we open up at 6:30,” McCormick said.
Longtime poll worker Elizabeth Kerns said she and her other fellow poll workers always look forward to helping out on Election Day.
“We’ve been preparing for this, we went to the training, a lot of us are seasoned, we’ve done this many times before, and it’s always exciting,” Kerns said.
McCormick said, in addition to the estimated 1,000 poll workers in Kanawha County gearing up for the big day, they also have 40-some truck drivers, and they expect to have between 60 to 70 workers at the Voter’s Registration Office Tuesday evening after the polls close who will be organizing the returned ballots and supplies.
On Monday, she said a total of 20 trucks were lined up at their warehouse taking all of the equipment out to the voting locations.
McCormick said a lot of hard work and effort goes into the Election Day process, but it’s also exciting.
“I mean, we’ve worked up to this, now it’s coming down to the final stages, so we’re excited and just happy for tomorrow,” she said.
McCormick said it was a record-breaking year for early voting in Kanawha County this year with 32,000 early voters– making up about 10% of the whole state’s early voting numbers.
Early voting ended Saturday. McCormick said while they expect quite a bit more to come out to vote on the actual day Tuesday, she hopes workers aren’t completely bombarded with voters, as most, it seems, came out to vote early.
“I think we’ll have lines tomorrow at the polls, I hope it’s not long lines, because with all of the people that’s already voted early, I think it will take some of the pressure away from the poll workers,” said McCormick.
Kerns said she has been working the polls on Election Day for about 20 to 25 years now.
She said she enjoys it because she is a public servant. A member of the National Guard for 24 years and a current member of the Charleston City Council, Kerns said she believes in serving her community and the people in it.
Kerns said there’s a lot of misconceptions when it comes to the voting process, which she said is another reason why she believes it’s important for people to serve as a poll worker in their community and see the process first-hand.
“They don’t even understand what actually we are trained to do, what we know to do, and what we actually do during elections, so I think if actually more people got involved they would be more assured that the voting process is fair and equitable,” said Kerns.
Polls open at 6:30 a.m. Tuesday and close at 7:30 p.m.