County Election Board awaits phone service at its Expo Center office

Aug. 28—The Pittsburg County Election Board is continuing to operate out of its regular office at 109 E. Carl Albert Parkway — for now.

Most of the furniture, computers and other things needed to run the office have already been moved to the County Election Board's planned new temporary location at the Southeast Expo Center.

A crucial element was still missing as of early Monday — completion of a process to have the election board's phone and fax lines available for use at its Expo Center office.

Until that process is complete, the election board will have to continue to operate at its current address in the Courthouse Annex, where a working computer used by Election Board Clerk Christy Holt remains online.

Pittsburg County Election Board Tonya Barnes made the decision to leave some functioning equipment at the election board's current location, instead of moving everything temporarily to the new location.

"We're not taking all of our stuff over there," Barnes said, referring to the Expo Center.

Asked when she now expects the temporary move to the Expo Center to be complete, Barnes said "Hopefully, this week."

The phone and fax lines remain the only holdups, she said.

"We got the internet last week," Barnes said, referring to getting the service online at the temporary Expo Center offices.

The move to the Expo Center became necessary as a result of flood water running underneath walls and onto the carpeted floor of the County Election Board Office during the last round of heavy rains.

Water damage resulted in all of the carpet getting ripped from the floor. In another flood-related action, the Oklahoma State Election Board picked up approximately 55 voting machines for transport to Oklahoma City to ensure the machines will not be damaged by the damp conditions.

Meanwhile, early in-person voting for the upcoming Sept. 12 elections in the city of McAlester and the Frink-Chambers School District is expected to be held at the Expo Center., even if the County Election Board's move to its Expo Center office was not finalized as of early this week.

Barnes expressed her confidence Monday that the move to the Expo Center will be completed in plenty of time for the early in-person absentee ballot voting.

It is still slated to be held from 8 a.m. until 6 p.m. Sept. 7-8, the Thursday and Friday prior to the Sept. 12 election, at the County Election Board's new Expo Center location.