Poll Worker’s Needlepoint Hobby Leads to Debate during Starke County Election Board Meeting

Posted on April 26, 2018 
Author Michael Gallenberger, WKVI

A poll worker’s needlepoint hobby led to a lengthy debate among Starke County Election Board members Wednesday. Board President Harrison Fields said he’s gotten complaints about a poll worker who’s apparently been doing needlepoint while waiting for potential voters, during in-person absentee voting hours. “I’ve had two phone calls on it, and me personally, I don’t like the looks of it, personally,” he said. “I don’t like the looks of it.”

Starke County Clerk Vicki Cooley said that during early voting, there’s sometimes a wait of several hours between voters. While the election board has decided not to allow poll workers to use laptops during voting hours, Cooley said she had no problem with them bringing along a quiet activity to work on. Fields disagreed. “I think if you go out down here in private business, I don’t think any private business is going to let you do such things,” he said.

Fields said he was okay with poll workers bringing newspapers or magazines to look at. Others warned that could lead to problems if they happen to contain pictures of candidates.

With less than two weeks until the May Primary, board member Peg Brettin asked Fields to drop the issue. “We’re picking on menial things,” she said. “We’ve got an election coming up that we need to be worrying about.”

Fields wanted to settle the matter with a vote, but Cooley and Brettin didn’t think it was worth it. “Do you really want to put a vote into the minutes that it’s okay that the ladies can take care of handiwork down there?” Brettin asked.

“Sure, why not?” Fields replied.

The issue never came to a vote, but after more than 15 minutes of discussion, board members agreed that poll workers should be asked to keep any needlepoint or other outside materials out of the sight of voters.