For the first few days of early voting, the main supervisor of elections office in Okaloosa County has remained closed for cleaning after two employees tested positive for COVID-19.
Elections’ Supervisor Paul Lux was one of them. He says he’s experiencing mild symptoms and plans to return to the office next week.
Other staff members have still been working at the elections office, located in Crestview. Lux says the site will open for early voting and canvass commission meetings after county health officials determine it's been properly sanitized.
“I don’t want to put a date on it and be wrong,” Lux said. “We are working with all of the appropriate agencies to be sure that when we do reopen that the public can be assured that everything is safe.”
At the county’s four open polling sites, turnout has been higher than usual during a presidential election, Lux said. By Wednesday night, almost 17,000 voters had cast in-person ballots, according to the county’s live online tracker.
“We clearly have a lot of interest,” Lux said. “If we continue doing something in the neighborhood of five thousand and something a day, I don’t know how many people are going to be left to vote on Election Day.”
