Mid-Missouri clerk’s offices take COVID-19 precautions for voters

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

County clerks' offices have been taking precautions to protect voters from COVID-19 as absentee voting has been taking place. They plan to do the same for the Nov. 3 election.

ABC 17 News spoke with several mid-Missouri county clerks offices in counties with and without health orders in place to learn what they were doing.

Counties like Randolph, Audrain, Boone and Cole have been practicing social distancing and providing hand sanitizer during absentee voting. They plan to take similar steps on election day.

In Audrain County, for example, the clerk's office is sanitizing pens, utilizing social distancing and requiring employees to wear masks. On election day they also plan to use UV lights to sanitize voting booths.

Many people have been voting absentee in an effort to protect themselves from the virus.

Wallis Landrum and his wife voted absentee in Randolph County. Landrum said they encountered a problem when employees of the office refused to put masks on.

He said at the time everyone in the courthouse was wearing masks except in the clerk's office. Landrum said the office staff told them they did not have to wear masks.

"They wiped the pens with Clorox and they washed their hands before they handed us the envelope but they wouldn't wear masks," he said.

The Missouri Secretary of State's Office does not have the authority to issue a directive to Missouri clerk's offices, and many counties do not have health orders like the one in Boone County requiring masks.

Landrum explained why at the time his experience was frustrating.

"Stores in town require their employees to wear masks in the public and if someone isn't wearing a mask in a store I don't have to shop there. But that was the only choice for where to vote," Landrum said. "That's the only place I could vote was with people that didn't care about my health as much as I did theirs. I was wearing my mask for their sake."

On Tuesday, an employee of the Randolph County Clerk's Office said employees are not required to wear masks but they would be happy to wear one if a voter had concerns. Landrum had reached out to the clerk after they went to vote and the clerk said they would take his concerns into consideration.

Landrum said he believes the office will follow through with this.

The Randolph County Clerk's Office also has other precautions in place. They will have plexiglass at polling locations to separate workers and voters and will be using disinfectants to clean high touch areas.

Randolph will not be the only one not requiring poll workers to wear masks. The Cole County Clerk's Office is also not requiring them for workers.

"I'll mention it and ask them to but I can't afford to lose any of them so if I mandated it and they got up and walked out we'd be in terrible shape," said Cole County Clerk Steve Korsmeyer.

Korsmeyer said several election judges have dropped out Tuesday morning.

Although they will not require masks, the office will have other precautions in place. When voters check-in there will be plexiglass separating them and the workers. When poll workers hand out ballots they will be social distancing.

The Boone County Clerk's Office is requiring poll workers to wear masks and will be asking voters to do the same. The office will have masks available if a voter comes without.

"That's really important too when people think about electioneering and not wearing candidate's t-shirts or hats or things like that, lots of people are now wearing masks with candidate information on them," said Boone County Clerk Brianna Lennon. "So you can't wear those into a polling place but we wanted to make sure that when we ask you to take off your mask we do have a replacement one for you."

The Boone County Clerk's Office has hired additional staff, high schoolers, whose sole job on election day will be to keep the polling places clean. Each voter will also get their own pen with a stylus so they will not be required to touch polling pads. Poll workers checking in voters will also be behind plexiglass shields, which has been the same during absentee voting.