MOBILE, Ala. (WALA) – The Mobile County Commission is looking at approving just under $178,000 for COVID cleaning of polling places starting the day after the upcoming election.
“As a courtesy and to give assurances to the building owners that everything will be clean and sanitized after they are utilized as polls,” said County Commission President Connie Hudson.
Currently the Mobile County Health Department reports seven COVID related hospitalizations as of May 4th and less than 200 confirmed cases. Still the county commission wants to make sure anyone with health concerns feels comfortable after the polls close.
“COVID is still a concern for a lot of people, there are things that we changed in terms of how we do and how often we do it that we’ll probably continue regardless of the state of COVID in our community,” said Hudson.
Out of the around 80 polling places throughout Mobile County a large number of them are places that will be used by a lot of people the day after.
“We utilize churches and schools as polling places,” added Hudson.
While some don’t see the need for such an investment.
“I believe our politicians, our government our state, federal are using COVID as an excuse and I think people in the state of Alabama or any other state are sick of it,” said John Johnston.
Others do understand making sure high traffic buildings are clean for those who use them.
“I do think that it’s helpful to be clean and to make things nicer than before you got there after using them,” said Fredrick Stimpson. “Whether it’s COVID or anything else you don’t want anyone to get sick.”
The reason the cleaning is taking place after the election is because the county doesn’t have possession of the facilities until election day. Any cleaning beforehand is up to the facility owners. The county commission is expected to vote on the money during their meeting on Monday, May 9th . The election is scheduled for Tuesday May 24th.
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