A poll worker in Missouri who showed up to work on Election Day despite knowing she had COVID-19 has died. The poll worker, who was an election judge supervisor in St. Charles County, has not been identified, and her exact cause of death has not been determined.
The judge learned that she tested positive for COVID-19 on October 30 yet decided not to self-isolate for two weeks.
County officials said that she worked at a polling site at Blanchette Park Memorial Hall, where 1,858 voters cast their ballots. They said that she did not have direct contact with voters in her role as a supervisor. All poll workers were required to wear face coverings, and they were separated from voters by plexiglass dividers. Officials said that voters were not considered to have close contact with the judge as they cast their ballots.
"Fortunately, most voting interactions are brief, and hopefully that will minimize any transmission that may have occurred at this particular polling place," St. Charles County Public Health Department director Demetrius Cianci-Chapman said, according to KMOV.
Health officials did advise nine other poll workers to get tested for COVID-19 as a precaution. Officials said they don't know why the judge decided to break quarantine and show up to work on Election Day.
"I know this election was important to her. But why she chose to break quarantine, that's a question I can never get an answer to," said St. Charles County Election Authority Director Kurt Bahr.
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