HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. — There will be 239 polling sites opening up for voters at 7 a.m. in Hillsborough County. There will be extra precautions taken at all of them this year to make sure not only the voters are safe, but the poll workers are safe as well.
While many registered voters either did a mail-in ballot or voted early in person, there are still traditionalists out there who believe voting on election day is the way to go. Hillsborough County's Supervisor of Elections Craig Latimer has made sure that they are ready to go and that it's safe.
Over the weekend, clerks for each polling place did a drive-through pick up of supplies needed for election day. They spent Monday getting all set up so they'd be ready by 7 a.m. Latimer says the set up is going to look just slightly different than people are used to.
"We'll have the plexiglass barriers that you can see between the voters and the poll workers. The privacy booths are socially distanced so we're not right on top of one another. We've cut down the touchpoints for poll workers so they're not sharing equipment."
Each poll worker will get their temperature taken before starting their day and they will wear a mask the entire time. They will also be wiping down equipment frequently. Hand sanitizer will be readily available and voters will get their own stylus pen to use to vote and then keep.
"We're not going to have a whole lot of people in the polling site. We're going to do social distancing in there. So, it might slow down a little bit, but we're going to make sure we've got a safe and healthy environment for the people."
Latimer added that they've done some exit interviewing of people who voted early, in person. Most of them said they felt it was a very safe, good experience.
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