Laurel poll workers are honored to serve on election day

LAUREL — “We should do our civic duty by voting,” said Yvonne Hansen, expressing her view of the importance of going to the polls this Tuesday.

Many arrive at the election polls with one’s mind strictly on the ballot, filling in each bubble, casting a vote for the person that closely represented one’s personal views.

During this process, you might have thanked the person at the voting station that was checking off your name, handing you the ballot in the protective sleeve but never stopped to think about how the members of the election board helped make voting in the 21st precinct possible.

“I feel this position is an honor. It is a privilege to be on the board,” said Betty Olsen.

Currently, there are six people who make up this year’s Laurel election board. Two people are selected as “judge,” the other four serve as “clerks”. The board has representation from both political parties.

Yvonne Hansen, Kayleen Dahl, Marcia Lipp, Betty Olsen, Elizabeth Norvell, and Joan Hartman were on duty here Tuesday morning.

Each election morning, the members arrive and prepare the election station for voters.

Election board members hang up sample ballots around the voting station, this allows for voters to have one last look at the ballot if needed before voting.

The members serving as judges prepare ballots by placing their initials on the bottom of the ballot, ensuring authenticity.

Upon arrival, an election board member serving as clerk will find the voter’s name in the precinct’s ledger of registered voters. Once the voter’s name is found, the voter signs in. The clerk will tell the judge which party the voter is registered to.

The election board judge then hands the voter a ballot with a protective sleeve. Once the voter has completed the voting process, the election board judge will slide the ballot into the protective box.

Once the election poll is closed, the members must make sure the number of ballots and voters are the same.  Since the ballots are placed in a locked box, the members must subtract the unused ballots from the used ballots to get that total.

At the end of the election day, the locked box with the ballots are taken to the Cedar County Courthouse in Hartington. Here the ballots are electronically tallied.

Throughout the evening at the courthouse, a white board is updated with the election results as those votes are counted.

Election board members are not allowed to discuss any political topics with voters.

In the past, the town of Laurel was separated into two wards, an east and west ward. Voter’s coming in would receive their ballots not only based on their political party but also their location in Laurel.

With the town being separated into two wards, each ward had 10 election board members for a total of 20 members.

Before the ballots were being counted electronically, the ballots would be counted in an election board member’s house. Members were not allowed to discuss any election results. Ballots would be taken, 25 at a time, to be counted. There was a house on the west side of town counting the ballots representing the west ward and a house on the east side of town tallying ballots from the east ward. Members were not to keep a running tally of the ballots, only to count the bundles of 25 ballots before the ballots were taken to Hartington.