Jackson County Election Board staff contracted COVID-19 as absentee votes rolled in
More than two dozen employees at the Jackson County Election Board have come down with COVID-19 in recent weeks and they most likely got infected by voters who tested positive prior to Election Day, an election official said she believes Monday.
Eight full-time staff and 20 part-time workers have contracted the disease, Jackson County Republican election director Tammy Brown said. Two workers, both part-timers, were hospitalized.
None of them worked at the polls on Election Day, she said.
“It is possible that workers could have caught the virus from voters, but as we have widespread community transmission, there are many places that the workers could have potentially caught the virus,” said Kayla Parker, a communications coordinator for the Jackson County Health Department.
The department is currently going through the disease investigation process with the cases and contacts at the election board, she said.
“Individuals are considered contacts when they are within six feet of an infectious person for 15 cumulative minutes or more,” Parker said in an email. “The majority of voters and visitors of the JCEB will not meet this criteria, and should not be concerned.”
However, those who self-determine that they meet the criteria should quarantine for 14 days after being exposed and monitor for symptoms.
Brown said there was a difference between the poll workers who worked Election Day and staff members who became sick. The ones who became ill had worked at the election board’s main office at 215 N. Liberty Street in Independence and its absentee office at 110 North Liberty Street.
The absentee office location was used as a drive-thru poll location on Election Day for voters who had tested positive for COVID-19 or were in quarantine. It also handled any intra- or interstate or new resident voters inside, she said.
She believes the workers most likely caught the disease because of their work with the election.
“That last week, we were running 1,000 to 1,300 people through a day, whether it was drive-thru or in-person absentee,” she said.
The election office took measures it could to protect election workers, including have them wear max and installing plastic glass, she said. Some workers wore face shields and gloves. Offices were disinfected every night.
“They were constantly disinfecting all day long, wiping down computer screens and desks and chairs,” Brown said. “I don’t know what more we could have done to have kept the voters and our workers safe than what we did.”
Jackson County had nearly 200,000 voters cast ballots this past election, including more than 64,000 mail-in, in-person and drive-thru absentee voters, she said.
This story was originally published November 16, 2020 at 3:52 PM.
