KINGWOOD — Preston County Clerk Linda Huggins would like a centralized place for her office to prepare for and conduct election activities.
Huggins raised the issue at Monday’s Preston County Commission meeting. Commissioners suggested she come up with more specifics that could possibly be presented to an architect for a design.
Commissioners Craig Jennings, Dave Price and Don Smith also unanimously certified the results of the Nov. 6 election.
Huggins said she would like, “a practical area where we can conduct our election processes.”
“The ideal situation would be if we could have a facility where we could have our poll worker training, have our early voting process, have our election night process all in the same vicinity,” Huggins said.
Smith said the matter would have to be considered during work on the 2019-‘20 budget. That work starts in March.
“I know we’ve talked about it in the past, that’s one of the goals,” Smith said.
Huggins said the focus on election security also prompted her thoughts. She said there are other funds that might be available too.
“We’re not talking a half a million dollars, we’re talking a couple $100,000,” Huggins said. “And yes, that is a lot of money. But this is part of my constitutional duties and your constitutional duties to make sure that I have what we need.”
Jennings noted some counties have found vacant businesses for this purpose. The only thing available to Preston so far is facilities that would have cost more to get into shape than it is worth, he said.
He asked how many square feet Huggins was talking? She said 5,000. Jennings also asked if the facility could be used for more than elections? The clerk said election machines would have to be stored.
Preston stores voting machines in a locked space behind the commission meeting room. Huggins said some of the storage is, “up high. It’s just not practical.”
County Administrator Kathy Mace noted the commission has discussed a multi-use conference room. Commissioners said they need a list of what’s needed.
Jennings said Huggins’ office does a wonderful job with elections, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be better.
“And I think that we deserve to have that space that is specifically what we do,” Huggins said.
Also at the meeting, commissioners:
approved Assessor Connie Ervin’s hiring of Andrew Lipscomb of Masontown to fill an open position in her office. He will start at $12 per hour.
went into closed session to discuss a legal matter. No action was taken after the executive session.
