Hampton's first election was a learning process

Election day is just a short diversion for most people, as they make time in their day to cast a ballot. For the Dunklin County Clerk's office, it is a lot of hard work and long hours. For Kent Hampton, overseeing his first election was a learning experience. "Going into it, there's a lot of work. Everything has to be set up, there's the ballots, training of judges, and the preparation for election day itself. There's always concern about what the weather will be like -- what kind of turnout you'll have," said Hampton.

Overall Tuesday went smoothly, with only a few bumps in the road. "Our phone was constantly ringing all day. We were reassuring, and we had technical support here traveling to the polling places in the event that a problem occurred. I visited the local election sites, also, to thank the judges and inquire if they had any issues that I could help them with," he said.

Hampton expects no major changes from the way this election was handled, however, some tweaking is inevitable to make the voting process more accessible and comfortable. One change likely is to bring back a few tables and chairs to the American Legion Building for Kennett voters. "We had eliminated the tables and chairs that had previously been there. The thinking was that we have people congregate and visit, which block the voting lines. We chose to remove some of those, but it created some hardships for some older folks that needed the ability to sit down and have more light to see and mark their ballots," he said.

Voter turnout was close to 25 percent in Dunklin County. "As I've checked with other counties, our voter turnout was one of the larger ones. Stoddard reported to me they were right at 15 percent. Some of the others were around 20 percent. We had some issues that people were passionate about, which made them turn out," he said.

There are still lots of people who do not take advantage of the privilege to vote. Hampton is not sure what else can be done to increase voter turnout. "It's always the first Tuesday of April. The date doesn't change from year to year. There are always weather concerns, but election day removed all those doubts. There were certain issues that people were passionate about. We thought that might be one thing to bring them to the polls. We continue to feature the early voting. They can request a ballot to be mailed to them. We had right at 135 ballots that we mailed out. I think it's an individual responsibility. I think we've made it about as easy and accessible as we possibly can," he said.

Hampton bragged on his staff, who worked hard to make Tuesday as smooth as it was. "I'm so fortunate to have a great staff that was such a large help to me because it was my first election."

He also thanked election judges. "I thank them for their service to the election process, because without them, we have no election." There were 82 judges who worked the various polling places around the county, plus 14 others who were stationed at the Courthouse Tuesday night. Hampton is grateful as well to the sheriff's department that helped with the equipment.

It takes many people and a lot of preparation to make a successful election day. "For me and a lot of people looking from the outside, we focus on the results. But it's sort of like making a cake. There's a lot of ingredients that go into it in advance before it comes out of the oven."