Livingston Election Wednesday

The City of Livingston’s Municipal Election is Wednesday.

Overton County Administrator of Elections Craig Story said about 300 people have voted early. Polls will be open Wednesday from 9am to 7pm. Story said election officials have worked hard to make the process as normal as they can for voters.

“This is an election just like any other one, but it’s not,” Story said. “The process needs to be the same, but we need to take some precautions there and do everything we can to keep people safe.”

The Livingston Election will be held at the Livingston-Overton County Chamber of Commerce. Story said, overall, the voting experience should feel familiar.

“The voters are not going to see a great, great lot of difference in how it typically goes,” Story said. “The process is going to be pretty similar there. We’re going to let them go through the same doors they always go through. We are going to practice social distancing. We’re going to have hand sanitizer there as they are going in. They will notice our workers are going to have masks and gloves. We’re going to have some sneeze guards that will be up to keep some distance between us. Our setup will be a little bit different, just to maintain distance. They’ll be offered hand sanitizer again, just for their benefit. Then, they will exit through a different door this time. That’s just to keep people from accidentally coming into contact with each other.”

Story said voters need to remember to bring valid identification. He added poll workers won’t be coming into contact with those IDs.

“One of the things I would tell voters is we’re not going to be taking those IDs from them,” Story said. “They will present them and hold them up for our workers, but we’re not going to be coming into contact with their ID.”

Unfortunately, Story said, officials were unable to get access to allow nursing home residents to vote in the municipal election.

“In the fall, we are hopeful they are going to be able to,” Story said. “Unfortunately for the Town of Livingston election they were not. The nursing home just did not want, obviously, want anyone coming in over there and potentially infecting anybody.”

Mayor Curtis Hayes is running unopposed in the election, while four people are running for three alderman seats.

In addition to the light turnout, Story said requests for absentee ballots has been low. He said he expects more demand for the August 6 election.