Auditor’s Office seeking voting sites, workers

Here’s what we know when it comes to the 2020 General Election: It takes place on Tuesday, Nov. 3.
After that? Chickasaw County Auditor Joan Knoll admits she’s not quite sure, especially after the New Hampton City Council last week did not give her office the go-ahead to use the New Hampton Fire Station as a polling place.
“[Fire Chief] Toby [Schwickerath] recommended we say no,” City Clerk Karen Clemens said, “and it isn’t because he or we for that matter don’t want to do our part. But Toby was concerned about having all that equipment sit outside for an entire day. … Who knows what kind of weather we’ll be having in November?”
Knoll’s office has for years used the Fire Station’s meeting room as a polling site for rural townships, but she made the request for the entire building to allow for social distancing when voters head to the polls for the presidential election.
When the Auditor’s Office started “combining” precincts to save money and because not enough poll workers were available, voters in New Hampton cast ballots at the New Hampton Community Center.
“But we just don’t think that’s a large enough room when it comes to the COVID concerns,” she said.
— For more on this story, see the July 28 Tribune