Incompetence strikes again. The Eudoral Welty Library is closed to the public because it has no air-conditioning. Well, make that the non-voting public because the June 7 primaries were held in the landmark building. Although voters could quickly enter and exit, poll workers were forced to suffer the stifling heat. However, never fear as this is Jackson, Mississippi where incompetence is never abolished but repeated. WLBT reported last night:
The chair of the Hinds County Republican Party is calling on county leaders to move the voting precinct at Eudora Welty Library ahead of the runoff later this month.
Welty is Precinct 1. It was open on Election Day, but the air conditioner in the building was out.
“Those poll workers are there from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 or 8 o’clock at night,” he said. “That’s a long time to have to sit there in that heat.”
Perry says there’s plenty of time to relocate the precinct prior to the June 28 runoff....
Election Commission Chair Shirley Varnado says there’s not enough time to find a suitable location and to notify voters in time.
Ah yes, the Election Commission that continues to distinguish itself in foolishness regardless of who is in charge. Unfortunately, the Commission, Library System, and Lumumba Administration are more concerned with pointing at each other than protecting poll workers and voters.
Varnado blames the city of Jackson for the problem, saying the city only notified the commission days before the June 7 primary election, even though they knew the air conditioning at the library had been out for weeks.
“We send out letters every year to confirm that places are willing and able to be the precincts for the primary and general elections,” she said. “We sent out the letters in February. We found out (the air conditioning was out) a day or two before the election.”
“If they knew they wouldn’t have air, and it wouldn’t be sufficient, they could have told us that (or) could have gotten it fixed.”...
The air conditioner there has been out since at least May 2, when the system announced the branch would close early “due to A/C issues.”
Meanwhile, no repairs to the air conditioner have been made.
Chief Administrative Officer Louis Wright said the city still had not determined who was responsible for making the repairs.... Rest of article.
Point, point, point.
Perry doesn’t care who fixes the air conditioner. Until it’s fixed, he’s not comfortable sending workers back into the facility.
“I don’t want to ask them to work in that. They have to sit there for 14 hours where it’s 90 degrees. They have fans in there, but it’s moving hot air,” he said.
He already has one potential poll worker who said he likely will not work there without air conditioning.
As for moving the precinct, he says there’s ample time to do so before the runoff.
Perry said moving a precinct is typically the responsibility of the board of supervisors, and that supervisors will typically defer to election commissioners on potential locations.
“The main thing is giving voters proper notice so they’ll know where to go,” he said. “You can’t have people going in there and having to work that long in that kind of heat. It’s not safe.”
Mr. Perry told JJ last night that the poll workers refuse to work at the library if the air-conditioning is not fixed. This is a perfect example of what is wrong in Jackson. The so-called leaders don't lead but are more interested in making excuses. If those poor poll workers are forced to work in that sweat box, the CAO, Election Commission, City Attorney, and Library Executive Director should be forced to sit in that same library for 14 hours.... in their suits.
33 comments:
What happens if no poll workers show up?
They can't open the polling location without poll workers, right?
Is the entire runoff/election thrown out?
The fastest way to destroy a book is to keep it in a hot & high humidity sealed room.
This is so tragic.
You can bet your last dollar that if King Bennie was in a primary runoff that there would be an army of people there getting that AC repaired, costs be damned.
Ain't nobody got time for no white bread voters. It ain't voter suppression unless the suppressed voters are brothers and sisters.
The failure to maintain and repair the public libraries in Jackson is just interpersonal dis-information.
Libraries are racist.
Can someone tell me why WLBT, WAPT, and WJTV are such obedient lap dogs for Lumumba? Any competent press would be hounding his incompetence.
If the metro area really needs a Welty library it ought to be put somewhere safe that allows the public to enjoy it, also somewhere it will be appreciated and cared for. Neither of these things will happen in Jackson.
Finding an alternative would entail additional work, extra effort. The business of the Hinds County official is to find less work, less effort for the same or MORE pay. That's the idea, that's why they run for office. Otherwise, what's the point?
That's pitiful, Jed, just pitiful.
Books, we don't need no stinking books.
Will the AC parts be ordered soon, like at the water treatment plant, right?
A voter can vote at any voting location, but would have to sign an affidavit.
1102 - No. An entire election would not be thrown out because one precinct didn't open which would have had 25 or so voters. Unless, of course, the race is so close that 25 or so voters could change the outcome.
But the issue here is that those 25 voters deserve the right to vote and express their opinion; and the people that make that possible, the poll workers, deserve to be given a decent place to work.
Any other Hinds County employee who's indoor workplace had no air conditioning during this heat wave would be given time off with pay - just as they were given months off with pay during the pandemic. But in this situation, the Hinds County Election Officers clearly don't give a damn about those workers since it is a Republican Primary and not their friends and relatives that are managing the election.
It's racist forcing those mostly black poll workers to work in that stifling heat, but Chowke wants to keep them on the plantation, right?
City giving away free fans, what more do you want?
Perhaps the City Council can vote to move Antar and Louis to the Welty library.
When I was a kid my parents walked uphill barefoot to go vote in a church that didn’t have no air-conditioning
If it wasn't so sad, it'd be funny they way jackson (That's right, it doesn't deserve to be capitalized) citizens moan how getting shot in the foot hurts!
BUT, they keep loading that gun and pulling the trigger !!!!
Can't believe how FUBAR'd the city has become.
A long time ago ...in a galaxy far, far away ...
I always enjoyed a visit to the Jackson Public Library at Northside Drive and Manhattan Road.
( I think it was renamed many years ago), but no matter.
It's been rotted and worthless for years.
Didn't poll workers just get a pay raise to $175 for sitting on their butts all day on election days? Very few actually do anything. If they don't like the working conditions, don't work.
Good grief. Bring in an airconditioned trailer for the voting machines and workers, and a lot of posterboard and magic markers to make signs pointing to the entrance. Set up the trailer in the parking lot.
1238 - one ought not comment when one does not know what they are commenting about.
Yes, a voter could vote somewhere else and do an affidavit ballot - BUT IT WOULD NOT BE COUNTED. It would be rejected because the voter did not cast the affidavit ballot in the precinct where the voter lives.
And the point with this issue is not dealing with the voter, but with the poll workers. A voter would spend less than five minutes inside the building - so even if it were 90 degrees, it wouldn't be any worse than while a voter walked from their car to the precinct, or to a restaurant - whatever.
The poll workers, on the other hand, have to stay in that building for hours on end, without a break. They are the ones that are being harmed by the incompetence of the Hinds County Election Commissioners for failing to deal with this problem.
At 428 - no, the poll manager got a raise to $150, the other workers to $125. For a fourteen hour day. Not hard work, granted, but it starts at 6 in the morning and lasts generally to 8 at night; sometimes later.
Do the math; tell us all how you are willing to work for $125 for 14 straight hours (can't leave for lunch, afternoon break, etc.)
Does ANYTHING in Jackson that is run by the city function correctly? Serious question. It’s a shame that this level of incompetence is tolerated over and over and over and over….
@6:10
I bet Chokwe’s De'Longhi La Specialista Prestigio Espresso Machine (imported from Italy) works flawlessly and is well stocked by the taxpayers of the City of Jackson.
I doubt his constituents have ever tasted such a bold and refined cup!
If enough poll workers don’t show up to work all day in a building without air conditioning, during a heat wave, with forecast temps of 97 degrees, will the polling place still be able to process votes?
If not, wouldn’t that disenfranchise the mostly-black voters who are assigned to vote there? How does that look for a mayor who claims to be a civil rights trailblazer?
Don't they make extra cash for ballot stuffing, paid by the DNC?
The building was originally a Sears store, so it's probably a good thing that Sears is out of business else Chowke would be suing them to replace a broken building like a Craftsman socket wrench handle.
Kenny and the crew of the City Council should pass an ordinance to rename the worst street they can find in the City to Chokwe Antar Lumumba Ave. and let's see the Mair veto it. Have a whole list of streets. He don't like that one let's try this one....
I hear that Andy Gipson has cleaned up a nearby building. Just call Andy.
Madness! Madness ... madness!
It's just the perception, of no air conditioning.
Why do we keep pretending that Jackson citizens visit or want a library? It is a silly game. The Emperor has no clothes! Ghetto Jackson does not want a library, the leadership is incompetent anyway, and it's not like Jackson has the money to spend on a library system that virtually no one uses!
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