Dozens of extra poll workers were ready to greet voters on a historic Election Day, and they were needed early on.

Poll workers and watchers at Memorial Hall, The Lighthouse, Fairview Christian Church and the Nazarine Church all reported long lines of up to 100 people waiting for the doors to open.
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We had a decent line, but I don't think it got outside," said Republican Poll Watcher Holly Snow. "We had four lines that snaked around and we had a crowd in the foyer. I'd say we had close to 100 people at first and it stayed that way until 10 in the morning or so."

Sandra Griffith, a polling judge at the Fairview Christian Church, said she was shocked when she arrived and found a line out into the parking lot there.

"I always get here early to vote before I sit down to help," Griffith said. "I thought I'd be number one, but I ended up being voter number 62. There must have been more than 100 people because my husband was number 89 and there were a number of people behind him.

"The first 30 minutes were pretty hectic, but then it thinned out and it's been pretty steady ever since."

County Clerk Bonnie Earl said she hired a number of extra workers to handle the crowd. She said she had more than 400 election workers ready to work the polls, compared to about 175 in a normal election.

Earl said after the election that 61.52 percent of registered voters in Jasper County, or 48,440 out of 78,743 registered voters actually came to the polls and voted. Of that number, more than 7,600 came to the courthouses in Carthage and Joplin in the weeks before the election to cast absentee ballots.

Earl, who had earlier guessed that maybe 70 or 80 percent of voters would turn out to the polls, said she was surprised that the turnout didn't meet expectations.

Frankie Gollhofer, Sarcoxie, was brought in as a greeter at the door at The Lighthouse in Carthage.

Gollhofer said her job was to look at a voter's id card or drivers license and direct that voter to the correct line. She said she didn't always get it right in this polling place where to precincts were each divided into two lines based on the first letter of a person's name, but the other election judges said Gollhofer was a big help.

"The greeter has helped tremendously," said Dorothy VanGilder, an election judge at the Lighthouse. "She sorts out which line people should be in and directs them as to which table they should go to. She has a roster along with the rest of us and can tell which precinct a person is from and tell them where to go."

All of the polling workers said they were surprised when an expected 5 p.m. rush failed to materialize. There was a small increase in the number of voters coming in after 5 p.m., but for the most part, after the morning rush, voters streamed steadily into the polls.

The lack of lines was surprising to voters such as Kristi Sanders, Carthage, who came to vote at the Fairview Christian Church after 6 p.m.

"Things went really easily," Sanders said. "I thought there would be a long line. I came after work and I was pleasantly surprised."

Snow said she was at the polling place to watch the process and challenge anything that looked improper, but nothing happened.

"This election went smooth as glass here," Snow said. "My job was to stand here, watch out for voter fraud and watch that ballot box like a hawk, but there's been nothing to challenge. I didn't see anything I'd remotely consider challenging."