Yesterday’s primary election went well overall. We had some issues early on with the battery life on our electronic poll books, but got that resolved by midday by switching to AC power only.
The turnout was light but steady in most of the county, with the precincts in the Clinton-Massie Local School District seeing the largest turnouts due to the proposed income tax issue on the ballot.
Our poll workers, as usual, did an excellent job and we can’t thank them enough for all of their hard work and help with administering the election. As elections continue to become more complex, it can be stressful for our office.
This is especially hard on our poll workers who are constantly required to learn new policies and procedures and take on more election day tasks. We really appreciate our poll workers who return each election to help us. They are our foundation.
We also appreciate those poll workers who are recruited at the last minute and often go into Election Day feeling intimidated by all that is expected of them. It takes true commitment to serving your community to work at the polls and we are lucky to find so many in our county who are willing to help us.
After certifying the final results and wrapping up this election in the upcoming weeks, we will quickly begin preparation for the November general election. We are expecting a much larger turn-out than we’ve seen in the last two gubernatorial general elections and we have a lot of work ahead of us to get ready.
We also have begun preparing for the next presidential year in 2020 which, in part, will require us to transition over to a whole new election system.
Our current system has reached the end of its lifespan and the new system will provide us with much better tools and security to meet the challenges we are faced with in modern elections.
If anyone is interested in being a poll worker in future elections, please contact the Board of Elections office at 937-382-3537 or by email at [email protected].
Shane Breckel is Director of the Clinton County Board of Elections.
