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Preparing For High Voter Turnout This Fall

Despite a large number of requests for absentee ballots, state officials expect strong turnout for this year’s presidential election.  Sandy Hausman reports on how one registrar is preparing to accommodate crowds of voters during a pandemic.

Eighty thousand people are registered to vote in Albemarle County, and in this time of strong political differences, many of them are expected to cast a ballot.  Registrar Jake Washburne was, at first, concerned about drawing enough volunteers to staff the polls given concerns about COVID-19 and the increased risk older people face.

“About 75% of our election officers were older than 60," he explained. "Some of those veterans are still very gung ho to work, but some are not so gung ho, and that is perfectly understandable, and then there are some who are gung ho, but their adult children say ‘No way in the world are you going to work at the polls on Election Day.’

Fortunately, he reports a flood of younger volunteers. Unfortunately, they must all be trained.

“Traditionally we would gather 50 or 60 people  in the big conference room and do training sessions.  Well we can’t do that now.”

So the county is revising a video it made before the primary to get poll workers up to speed. Washburne adds one silver lining to the COVID cloud.  With so many county employees working at home, there will be plenty of parking for volunteers and voters who can cast ballots beginning September 18th.  

Sandy Hausman is Radio IQ's Charlottesville Bureau Chief