Poll workers say new voting centers are convenient

Shirley Reichenbacker has been helping out at Jackson County polling sites for more than 25 years, but this was her first primary election since the county incorporated the new vote centers.

She started working at the voting polls at Seymour-Redding Elementary School years ago. On Tuesday, she served as a clerk at the Calvary Baptist Church voting site in Seymour.

“I think the voting centers are good because then people can go where they want to go vote,” she said. “This is my first time working with the electronic equipment to sign people in, and the other girls know more about it, but it’s very easy to use.”

Jason Kuhlman, inspector at the voting site, said the registration stations had a technical glitch early Tuesday morning but were quickly fixed.

“For the people that came here when the machines were down, we just had to call the vote center and make sure they hadn’t voted early or absentee ballot, and then when they were verified, they were allowed to vote and put it in the machine themselves,” Kuhlman said. “It started getting busy here just as we got everything up and going again, and since then, everything has been going smoothly.”

Clerk Karen Tarrants said she didn’t expect they’d be so busy Tuesday morning because she recently helped with early voting at the Fraternal Order of Police Donald M. Winn Lodge 108 in Seymour, and sometimes, there would be about 20 voters come in, but one day, only eight people came in to vote there.

“Even though the system was down this morning, once it came back up, we could work people right on through,” Tarrants said. “I think it’s much faster and easier than paper.”

Close to 110 people had voted at the church by 9:30 a.m., said one of the judges, Diana Isaacs.

Linda Kamman and Phyllis Seybold have worked as clerks for several years, and both were helping out at the church voting site Tuesday. Both women said they enjoy being clerks because they like meeting the people who come in.

“We verify the identities of people when they come in, and this is our first year using these registration machines,” Kamman said. “The voters’ information is in here electronically, which is easier than the huge booklets we used to use.”

Kamman said she voted early at one of the sites and thinks having the vote centers is a nice convenience and there’s more flexibility for the voters.

The Jackson County Learning Center was another voting site in Seymour.

Clerk Cheryl Vierling has been helping at voting sites for about 10 years.

“The reason they did this is to consolidate the voting centers and make it more economical because they thought the money could be used in other ways in the county, so it’s pretty nice,” she said.

Inspector Kaelen Eglen said they had 104 voters come through by around 10 a.m. at the learning center. Her grandmother, Mary Eglen, was helping at the voting site, too.

“I’ve been working at the polls since I was 16 years old, and definitely the biggest change I’ve seen since I started is the EViD,” Kaelen said. “It saves us so much time than having to use the paper.”

The EViD system is the network of electronic devices at voting sites communicating with each other and with the county’s voter registration system.

“When I was 18 years old, I was an intern at the county clerk’s office and worked in voting registration, and that was actually the first year we got the EViDS, and they’re amazing,” Kaelen said. “We also have the new electronic voting machines here, and they’re really nice because the older ones were outdated.”

She said having the new vote centers this year has been great because before, if someone came to vote and they were at the wrong precinct, they might have to send that person across the county to vote. Now, they can choose to vote at any one of the seven vote centers in Jackson County.