By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
A huge voter turnout is expected today, not just nationally, but locally.
“We are expecting an epic turnout,” Buchanan County Clerk Mary Baack-Garvey tells St. Joseph Post. “I think this is going to be the highest Buchanan (County) will ever see, so I’m shooting for 85%.”
Baack-Garvey says nearly 8,000 votes have already been case by county voters, both absentee ballots as well as by those using the curbside voting offered by the county. Baack-Garvey says the curbside voting offered last week went well.
“It was an incredible process,” Baack-Garvey says. “I think everybody that did participate absolutely appreciated it and loved it, the convenience of it; not even getting out of your car.”
Baack-Garvey calls it a very successful event, which she hopes will prompt the legislature to change the law and allow it in future elections.
And, she says every polling place has been well prepared in this time of the coronavirus pandemic.
“We have all sorts of COVID supplies that we are providing every polling place, from masks to six-foot strips on the floor for social distancing, posters, hand wipes, hand sanitizer, rubber gloves, baskets to put dirty pens in,” according to Baack-Garvey.
Early reports from voting places throughout St. Joseph indicate a very strong turnout today with some long lines.