Erath County Clerk Gwinda Jones: Our election team has worked tirelessly for months.

By GWINDA JONES

Erath County Clerk

I am beyond grateful! This election could not have happened without a lot of amazing people.

First of all, my awesome staff!

They have worked tirelessly for months to prepare for this election.

In the middle of their preparations they also conducted a special election and while most of you are prepping for Thanksgiving and Christmas, they will be preparing for the special run-off election for Texas Senate District 30 that will be held Dec. 19.

Thank you, ladies, for your continued dedication and service to our county in doing whatever it takes to get the job done (and then some).

During this election season I had a new part-time volunteer worker, Wanda Greer, District Clerk.

She helped my office process what seemed to be a countless number of mail ballot applications and mail ballots. Each day she showed up and said “what have we got today?”

Thankfully, she just keeps coming back!

Jennifer Carey, our Voter Registrar, and her staff put in countless hours entering new voter registration applications and making sure our voter registration rolls were updated and correct. They also help answer the nonstop ringing telephones on election day with voter registration and other election related questions.

And as always, our county commissioners. They and their road hands help our office deliver, set up, take down all of the equipment needed to conduct the elections at all of our polling places.

We have a great county team, I am not able to name every individual but elections couldn’t happen without their help. I am thankful for all of you!

We have a Great Community. I want to thank all of our polling places for allowing us to use your facilities; Graham Street Church of Christ, Patrick Street Church of Christ, Cornerstone Assembly of God, Bluff Dale Community Center, Huckabay Community Center, Lingleville ISD, Morgan Mill Community Center, Selden Community Center, Texas A&M Agrilife Research & Extension Center and Texas Bank. A special thanks to Totelcom for always providing free Election Day services so that Selden Community Center can have internet in a very remote area of the county.

We have great people. So many of you signed up to be election judges and clerks to work at the polls or serve on the ballot board. Every one of you accepted the risk of being exposed to Covid19 and chose democracy over fear. Three weeks of early voting plus Election Day equals 16,911 votes cast. I applaud you!

As with anything electronic, the election did have a few temporary hiccups during the process. Those were handled quickly using our backup procedures. I thank you, the voter, for your patience and understanding as we navigated through the process to get back on line.

We live in the greatest country in the world! We get to have a say in who leads us. Our leaders are not appointed, it is not a right acquired by birth, we have a voice.

Your chosen candidate may or may not have won but you got to have a say in who leads us by placing a ballot in that ballot box. I will continue to thank God for that right. I thank those that gave their lives to give us that right.

I am so proud to be an American and blessed to live in Erath County, Texas!