People in several states who worked as poll workers on Election Day have tested positive for the coronavirus, although it remains unclear whether the infections are tied to the polling places.
The largest outbreak so far has been detected among election workers in the Kansas City suburbs of Jackson County, Mo., according to The Associated Press. Twenty-eight people who worked as poll workers there have tested positive in recent weeks, although Election Board head Tammy Brown said staffers urged anyone who felt sick to stay home.
“We, as election officials, all knew we were at risk,” Brown said, according to the AP. “I don’t think this was shocking to any of us.”
The high rates of infection in Missouri particularly make it hard to definitively say whether the cases are linked to in-person voting. While the county made drive-thru voting an option for anyone who had contact with an infected person, Brown said the board dealt with as many as 600,000 voters, including 200,000 early voters.
An election official working an early voting site in Linn County, Iowa, itself considered a national hotspot, also reported testing positive, according to the AP.
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Election Day link uncertain after poll workers across US test positive for COVID-19 https://t.co/l1EOK89x4c pic.twitter.com/K5ldRqNJtU
— The Hill (@thehill) November 16, 2020
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