Texas weekly devotes its editorial page to poll-worker tribute

The opinion page of the Canadian Record this week features a photo of
an 85-year-old election worker Donna Jenkins and a list of her colleagues.

At a time when America's election systems are being falsely attacked and election officials are getting threats of violence and worse, at least one American editor decided to devote her election-week editorial page to a tribute to the local poll workers who make sure elections run smoothly and fairly.

Laurie Ezzell Brown of The Canadian Record in the Texas Panhandle begins her column, "As I have in years past, I watch Donna Jenkins as she enters the second-floor offices of the Hemphill County Clerk’s office to deliver the Precinct 202 ballot box. Donna is 85 years old, and has served the election process in some capacity for the last 40 years. . . . She is one of several citizens of Hemphill County who can count their service not in years, but in decades, though when I ask her to tell me how long it has been, she doesn’t really seem to think that matters so much. 'I’m going to do it as long as I can,' she said, almost daring anyone to tell her otherwise, though no one with a lick of sense would.

"Not only has Donna just put in 12 hours straight at the polling place, she has just driven half of the 50-mile round trip to the courthouse in Canadian to deliver the ballots. She wants to keep on working that polling place so the registered voters who cast their ballots there won’t have to make that long drive to exercise their voting rights, though there’s not a doubt in the world that they would, if necessary. . . . If you’ve voted early anytime by personal appearance in the past decade or two, you’ve probably seen Precinct 101’s Sherry Wagoner and Les Lovvorn put in a little bit tougher duty than most, working eight hours a day, 10 days at a stretch, to accommodate early voters."

Brown mentions several other longtime election workers, then makes her policy point: "While I have nothing but admiration and respect for this brain trust of experienced election workers, and for the unwavering dedication they have to their jobs, I’m really starting to worry about what comes next. Possum Jahnel is back there in the records vault, running the ballot counter, as she has been for darn near every election I’ve covered over the last 30 years. JoAnne Wheeler and Sherry have been there by her side. They’ve lasted through the era of hand-counted ballots, through the somewhat terrifying era of electronic voting, and now seem almost at peace with the electronic ballot counter. But you just have to ask yourself, sometimes, who’s going to step up and take over next? In fact, you really might ask yourself that."