Due to the impacts of COVID-19, county election offices are short-handed with poll workers and will require additional support to take the necessary precautions to prevent the spread of the virus.

“One of the biggest effects the COVID has had on our operations is the fact we need additional poll workers to clean touch surfaces and hand out things like masks, gloves and hand wipes,” said Steve Hines, Lenoir Co. Board of Elections Director.

The use of civilian mail out ballots increased. In 2016, the Lenoir County elections office sent out 99 ballots, there are currently 995 ballots scheduled to go out.

“We need additional monitoring of our curbside area also in case there is an increase in voters not able to enter the polling place,” said Hines.

Greene County is also in need of support and is working with the Health Department, local Emergency Management, and state and federal partners to ensure the safety of their voters and poll workers. They have also reached out to USPS about the increase in absentee by mail ballots.

“We are hiring additional 25 poll workers more than the 50 poll workers we hired for the March election. We are trying to hire 75 poll workers in total for November,” said Trey Cash, Greene Co. Board of Elections Director. A residency of Greene County is required for employment.

In Jones County, most of the precinct officials agreed to work the 2020 election regardless of COVID. They will need more workers than usual to staff our on-stop site, but they already have those staff members lined up and ready to work.

“The best thing about living and working in Jones County is the willingness of our people to come together as a team when it's needed the most. We are blessed to have such incredible support not only from our citizens but county administration as well,” said Jennifer King, Jones Co. Elections Director.

According to the NC Board of elections, in 2020, three voting options are available for voters: absentee by-mail, in-person early voting and Election Day voting. Voters can decide which option works best for them. North Carolina allows all voters to cast an absentee ballot by mail. No special circumstance is needed. To request a ballot, fill out an absentee ballot request form here: https://s3.amazonaws.com/dl.ncsbe.gov/Forms/NCAbsenteeBallotRequestForm.pdf.

The federal CARES Act of 2020 allotted $13.1 million to North Carolina to address election-related issues arising from the pandemic, provided that the state provides $2.2 million in matching funds. The money will be used to help the 100 counties conduct elections during the pandemic.