How a ‘new generation’ of poll workers will handle Horry County elections in a pandemic
Peyton Rabon’s family has been working the polls on Election Day for decades. Naturally, she’ll do the same.
But the coronavirus pandemic means the 17-year-old’s first year working the polls comes with its own set of hurdles.
Rabon and her mom, Melissa Brown-Rabon, are prepping to work the polls at the Dog Bluff precinct near Aynor on November 3 for the general election. Brown-Rabon is in her 30th year of working the polls, but this year comes with responsibilities she hasn’t seen before.
“The social distancing with [the voters] when they’re in line is probably going to be the biggest thing,” said Brown-Rabon, a firefighter, EMT and medical trainer for Horry County.
Horry County’s 124 precincts will be staffed with 900 to 1,000 poll workers on Election Day, according to Angela Westmoreland, the training coordinator at the county’s department of registration and elections. The county will supply personal protective equipment and extra training for poll workers in hopes of minimizing the spread of COVID-19 and ensuring a safe election.
“The number one thing is social distancing,” Westmoreland said. “I train these workers so they know exactly how to use their PPE.”
As public health officials maintain that the coronavirus is most dangerous for people in their 60s and older, many veteran poll workers won’t return this year.
In their place, “a new generation” of poll workers emerged, according to Bob Brandon, president of the Fair Elections Center which works with Power the Polls, where around 500,000 people across the nation and 3,000 South Carolina residents have expressed interest in working the polls.
For Rabon, a senior at Aynor High School, being a poll worker is an opportunity to be a role model for others her age.
“You never know... if I get up in the morning [to work the polls] and people are gonna be like ‘Dang, if she can do it I can do it,’ and hopefully that’ll inspire other people to help,” Rabon said.
Westmoreland said Horry County is working with schools to recruit more young poll workers ahead of the election.
Across the country, a “much larger percentage” of people under 30 are expressing interest in working elections, Brandon said.
Aside from being less vulnerable to the virus, many young workers also have swifter technology skills required to help voters and are usually able to help lift heavy equipment when needed. In Aynor, Brown-Rabon is encouraged by the younger generation’s participation.
“If the younger generation don’t step up and start doing it, I don’t know who’s gonna run them,” Brown-Rabon said, noting her mother is in her mid-70s and is still working the polls.
The number of people who have signed up to be poll workers in Horry County isn’t available yet, Westmoreland said, but she’s noticed a push in interest this year compared to the 2016 election, which could be attributed to the pandemic.
“People have more time on their hands, people have more time to listen,” she said.
But most states are still looking for people who want to be poll workers, and the stakes are high if precincts don’t have enough.
“A shortage of poll workers does mean fewer polling places and longer lines,” Brandon said. “Some people will end up not voting.”
In South Carolina’s June primary election Brown-Rabon and her daughter worked the polls in Aynor, as usual. But because of a shortage of poll workers as coronavirus cases surged in the area, three precincts were consolidated into one polling place, they said.
That meant extra work for the poll workers, including verifying voters’ districts and giving them extra direction.
It’s too early to tell if Horry County precincts will need to be consolidated, Westmoreland said. The county is home to nearly 220,000 active registered voters, according to its website. In the 2016 presidential election, voter turnout in the county clocked in at 65.5% compared to the national average of 58.1%, according to Penn State University.
South Carolina authorized all voters to use an absentee ballot due to the coronavirus “state of emergency,” which Westmoreland said could increase participation, noting voter turnout is highly unpredictable.
In Aynor, voting can be a social outing for the tight-knit community. Even with the option of absentee voting, Brown-Rabon said most voters will likely come in person.
“And I think it makes our voters very comfortable going because they know that we’re there. It’s gonna be somebody in my family that’s there,” she said. “So they know they don’t ever have anybody that they don’t know there ... They’ll call us straight on our cell phone: ‘Hey we’re here,’ cause they have our numbers. It’s all like a family.”
If you’re interested in working the polls in Horry County, contact Angela Westmoreland at westmora@horrycounty.org or (843) 915-5440.
This story was originally published September 29, 2020 at 9:00 AM.
