Museum flooding causes relocation of polling location

During the Primary Election Day on Tuesday, August 16, the polling location for the Town of East Thermopolis Precinct 2-1 and the Town of Kirby Precinct 3-1 had to move due to flooding at the County Museum. 

Hot Springs County Clerk Becky Kersten received a phone call from her Deputy Karen Slocum at 5:34 a.m. that morning to inform her of the flooding. Prior to the call, Slocum arrived with Sheriff Jerimie Kraushaar to deploy keys to the election judges so they could do the chain of custody. The judges were supposed to be there at 6 a.m. but they asked a couple of judges to arrive at 5:30 a.m. They were also waiting for Rachel Moon, the museum’s director.

When Moon arrived and allowed them access to the museum, they found about an inch or more of water on the floor. The voting machines were in the meeting room just behind the partition. 

Sheriff Kraushaar was carrying the chain of custody bag that contained the poll books and set it down in a dry place to investigate. Kraushaar went into one of the bathrooms and found that there was a hose that had broken. The water was not sewage water, however. 

After being notified, County Clerk Becky Kersten then first called their county maintenance officer Les Culliton who was traveling to work to tell him what happened. Then Kersten called the Wyoming Secretary of State’s office and made a contingency plan to get to work as fast as possible. Culliton arrived at the county museum and called Kersten at 6:06 a.m. and confirmed there was too much water in the location to have voting take place. 

Kersten called Penny Herdt to see if there was anyone scheduled at the County Annex building and there wasn’t. Therefore, Kersten decided to move the polling place to the County Annex. After this decision, all the tables, gear, supplies, and equipment were packed up from the county museum and transported to the Annex. They set up everything and were able to take voters in by 7:22 a.m. 

Kersten and others had to notify the public of the location change. They made signs, posted on social media, and contacted the Senior Center because they were running buses. 

After all the circumstances were overcome, Kersten reflected and said, “I was really impressed.” Kersten added that it was not as simple as just moving objects. Still, there were multiple setups involved, including the configuration of the setup, the voting booths, the privacy booths and to design of the flow of traffic.

Kersten added, “I’m really proud of what they all accomplished. I mean, especially the tearing down and then getting everything. We had a lot of help.”