LEXINGTON COUNTY, S.C. — Lexington County's Department of Voters Registration and Elections is in need of poll workers for the upcoming elections in June and November.
Mary Brack, the Director of Registration and Elections in Lexington County, says since the coronavirus pandemic has started, the department has been changing the way they work.
"Our county offices are closed to the public -- but we do let people in if they need to come in," said Brack. "We've just been working in teams, like two people work in their home and the other team comes in."
Right now they've been working on recruiting poll workers for the upcoming election. The next election coming up on June 9 is the statewide primary that will determine the November ballot for US Senate and Congress and South Carolina State Senate and House races.
"We're always looking for new poll workers. We have this before every election," explained Brack. "This is big. All of our precincts will be open, all 96 of them."
Brack says the state will be providing equipment to help keep people safe during the COVID-19 situation. They are sending the county masks, gloves and hand sanitizer. They've also been practicing social distancing, keeping folks at least six feet apart.
To help with voting and not have voters touching the screens, people will be able to cast their vote by using Q-tips.
"You'll come up and they'll issue you a Q-tip, you'll go over and vote, and then you can discard that in the trash so you won't even have to touch the machine."
If people are still concerned about coming to a poll location on election day, the director asks folks to vote absentee so they can mail in their ballot.
"We are encouraging everybody that has any doubt about going out in June to just call or go to scvotes.org and you can get an absentee ballot mailed to you. You can vote by mail. We're trying to really encourage people to do that if they are afraid of going out."
Brack believes working as a poll worker will be something good for the community.
"We're going to have to do this June election. It's a great community service. You do get paid. You don't get paid a lot, but you do get paid. We're going to try and protect you as much as we can, not just for working in June but for working all of our elections."
They'll be taking as many poll workers as they can. For the June Primary, they'll have about 500 to 600 poll workers and clerks. For the November election, they'll have about 800 to 900.
If you would like to apply to be a poll worker for Lexington County, you can download the application here or you can can get an application at scvotes.org and get a poll manager application from there. People are able to send applications through mail, email, fax, or drop it off at the office of Registration and Elections for Lexington County.