VALDOSTA – The local elections office was desperate.

On May 12, Deb Cox, Lowndes County supervisor of elections, described her office as being in desperate need of poll workers to the local board of elections. With only 48 of the necessary 185 people to assist precincts on Election Day June 9, it simply wasn’t enough, but a sudden change in poll worker turnout has provided some optimism.

Although some people are still reluctant to work the polls because of COVID-19, Cox said new replacements are filling the gaps.

After contacting both Lowndes and Valdosta high schools, an influx of junior ROTC members and Lowndes baseball players has helped buoy numbers.

“Well I know the (baseball) coach sent it out and we had a bunch of them come in all at once,” Cox said.

Additionally, military veterans and law-enforcement Explorer scouts with the Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office have joined the ranks, but her office remained 50 poll workers short Tuesday morning.

“I think we’re looking good. We’ll know more by the end of this week,” she said.

The Lowndes County elections office normally needs 185 poll workers to open all the precincts and staff them, but an additional 15 workers will probably needed, according to Cox, to help with COVID-19 sanitation and enforce social distancing for lines. That would mean approximately 200 poll workers in total.

During her address to the board of elections two weeks ago, Cox warned that low poll worker numbers could force voting precincts to be consolidated for the June 9 election. For now, Cox said it would depend on how many more people sign up to be a poll worker and her office would decide the Friday before the election. 

The Valdosta State University precinct, however, will be closed as the VSU campus has been shuttered due to the pandemic. Anyone designated for that precinct will be redirected to the county elections office, but with no one in the dorms, they will be encouraged to vote by mail, Cox said.

“They’ve all been sent home so there’s no one to redirect,” she said.

To protect against the coronavirus, poll workers will wear mask and gloves and be provided with hand sanitizer. They will also have sanitation wipes to clean the voting equipment, tables and doorknobs “frequently,” Cox said.

Voters will not be required to wear masks in voting precincts. Cox said forcing voters to wear a mask infringes on their voting rights.

“You cannot put any impediment to voting, period, as a requirement,” she said.

Voters will be offered gloves, wipeable styluses and alcohol wipes by staff for added sanitation. Even the protocol for pens has changed.

“They won’t have to touch anything. The pens we give them like in the office now,” Cox said. “We give them a pen and they keep it. We’re telling them we don’t want it back.”