Lauren Sattler: Early on, Lauren volunteered her RV to be the canvassing mobile. Lauren brought it to Syracuse for a canvassing day and it got a lot of attentionhot . She brought it to the Nelson’s chicken fundraiser in Syracuse, and also the Indian food fundraiser in Warsaw. At the Nelson’s Chicken fundraiser, Lauren saw the need, along with other volunteers, and helped take the chicken out of the Styrofoam containers and pack the individual boxes which was a grueling job.
We Salute the Service of Lauren!
Dennise Mendez: Dennise was amazing, she helped send thousands of text messages. She translated the voting instructions on the website to Spanish. Dennise went canvassing on several occasions. She also wrote a text message which she sent to Hispanics asking them if they needed help with transportation or translation at the polls. Several people took her up on her offer. Dennise is a DACA and can’t even vote herself but this did not stop her from trying to get out the vote of likely Democrats.
We Salute the Service of Dennise!
Jim Streator, who lives in Claypool, contacted us last fall and said he was a perfect poll worker. He said he had recovered from COVID and had good antibodies. Initially, we had all the polling spots full, and did not have a spot for him. About aweek before the election, we were contacted by the Clerk’s office and she was looking for someone to serve on the bi-partisan travel board to go to people’s houses with COVID. Weimmediately called Jim. He did not hesitate to say yes. He and a Republican who had also recovered went together the Saturday before the election and then the Monday afternoon of the election. They assisted 30 voters with COVID. Now in the meantime, we had some cancellations, and we asked Jim to be a clerk in Mentone. Jim was our oldest poll worker.
We Salute the Service of Jim!
Daniel Messenger lives in the southwest side of Warsaw. Daniel is a college student and had never worked the polls. Daniel worked the machine delivery board the day before the election. Daniel initially graciously agreed to be a clerk in Mentone after a poll worker got squeamish. At the last minute, we had to ask Daniel to be the judge in Mentone. Not only did this require Daniel to drive to Mentone, but at the end of the day he had to ride with the Republican inspector with the machines to Warsaw and then back to Mentone and then back to his house! Thank you for going beyond the call of duty, Daniel!
We Salute the Service of Daniel!
Sarah Knight lives on the NE side of Warsaw. She volunteered to be a poll worker. She went to the training. It was looking like we would not have a spot for her. However, on Saturday before the election, we found out that the clerk for Sidney was not going to be able to work. We looked for the closest available alternate for Sidney. Sarah was not close, but she was the closest. The judge for Sidney had said she would be happy to be the clerk if Sarah wanted to be the judge. Sarah graciously accepted. So this meant that Sarah had to drive to Sidney, then at the end of the day, sgo with the inspector to Warsaw with the machine, and then back to Sidney to her car to drive home. Sarah, if you are willing to work in 2022, we will find you a closer polling place!
We Salute the Service of Sarah!
We would like to Salute the Service of All the Early Voting Workers. Processing of absentee ballot requests began on September 14. The numbers of workers needed changed by the day. First it was two, then it was three, then it was five, then it was back to three, etc. Even the hours of additional workerschanged almost daily. Kirby Lemond, Lois Tucker, Jeanine Kinsey, Elizabeth Cox, Jasmine Heizer were the main workers. Also Jim Patterson, and Karen Dawson worked various days as substitutes coming in at the last minute. Karen arrived one day only to find out she was going out on the Travel Board. On September 14, when we got the call late in the day that we needed two more people, Tim Madison stepped up and worked two days as a volunteer at no pay.
We would like to Salute the Service of all the early voting workers.
We had 71 poll workers throughout the County on Election Day. If you haven’t worked at the polls, you may not realize that these workers have to be there at 5:00 am and work until after the polls close on Election Day. It’s a long day. Of these, approximately 26 had never worked the polls previously to this election. An additional 9 people had gone to the training and were ready to serve if needed.
We also want to thank the people who served on the Machine Delivery Board, Receiving Board, and also the Absentee Ballot Processors. We had six absentee ballot processors who began at 6:00 on Election Day. They worked in bipartisan teams. As it turned out, we did not need the other six people who had volunteered to work the afternoon shift.
We Salute the Service of everyone who worked on Election Day.