Ebola sparks worry for some Dallas poll workers

Some poll workers in Dallas have decided to sit out Election Day 2014 citing worries over Ebola, according to the Dallas County Elections Administrator.

Administrator Toni Pippins-Poole told C&E that some poll workers “have decided they are not going to work the elections,” and the Dallas County Elections Department has also received numerous calls from voters concerned about heading to the polls.     

“We don’t have a cure for this, but we are going to provide health kits with sanitizer and we will provide gloves—the only things we can provide in our traditional health kit we give to workers,” says Pippins-Poole.     

Thomas Eric Duncan, the first patient diagnosed with Ebola in the U.S., was treated at Texas Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas. Two of the nurses who cared for Duncan—Nina Pham and Amber Vinson—also contracted the virus. Duncan died earlier this month. Both Pham and Vinson have recovered.

Pippins-Poole says the volume of concerned calls has dissipated and that she doesn’t anticipate any others deciding to not work the polls on Election Day. Health officials emphasize that the risk of exposure to the virus in public settings is exceedingly low.