Fairfield election worker recounts ‘nasty’ experience

FAIRFIELD – An election worker in Fairfield said she and other poll workers suffered a series of unpleasant experiences from computer problems to voters with a temper.

Carol Carlson appeared before the Jefferson County Board of Supervisors on Monday, Oct. 6 to speak about what she experienced during the special runoff election held Tuesday, Sept. 30 to fill the vacancy for Fairfield City Council’s Ward 3. Carlson said she’s worked the polls for 35 years and has never been so frightened as she was that day.

“People were just nasty,” she said. “We were called names. We were harangued. I’ve never had that problem. We had somebody come in just to protect us.”

Carlson said everything that could go wrong that day did. Normally, a polling place has four election workers, but one of the workers had a medical emergency that day and had to leave, taking his spouse with him who was also working the election, thus leaving only two poll workers. On top of that, Carlson said her computer kept malfunctioning, which led to longer than normal delays.

Carlson said one man came in who claimed to have four different residences in town, and argued that he was a resident of Ward 3. However, one of the residences he gave was the home of his ex-wife, who called the poll workers to say he did not reside there.

“We were also solving marital problems as well,” Carlson joked.

At one point, Carlson called Jefferson County Elections Commissioner Abbie DeKleine, and because DeKleine could hear a man yelling at the poll workers and calling them names, she rushed to the Nazarene Family Center where the election was being conducted.

At another point, a woman came in to vote who has experience working the polls, and Carlson begged her to stay and help, which she did for the rest of the day. Later, they called that woman’s husband to come in because the election workers felt unsafe.

“Without the auditor’s office, I absolutely could not have done it,” Carlson said. “They deserve stars on their crown. I kept begging Abbie to fire me, but she wouldn’t do it. It was the craziest election I’ve ever worked.”

Call Andy Hallman at 641-575-0135 or email him at andy.hallman@southeastiowaunion.com