CHUGWATER – Voters from the Iowa Center precinct are likely to be greeted by a friendly dog when they pull into the lot of their polling place. 

A hand-drawn sign outside of a small white building reads “VOTE HERE” in stenciled red lettering. Inside, three women sit at a plastic folding table in desk chairs, ready to complete their civic duty in the residence of Dan and Lorene Jackson, located off of US Highway 85 on State Highway 313.

Certain states do not allow private buildings to operate as polling places, but Wyoming does not have any such restrictions, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. According to Kate Jackson, who has worked as an election judge since 2010, Goshen County’s Iowa Center precinct has a long history of holding elections in people’s homes. 

“Before we had COVID restrictions this year, there was always the snacks and the coffee and people would loiter around,” Jackson said. “You could do those things in someone’s home, whereas in a general polling place, that’s not as conducive to that.”

Jackson said she married into a family of election judges. Her husband’s grandmother was the election judge when it was at their house. Elections have been held at Dan and Lorene’s home for roughly 12 years. Kate said Lorene would have been the head election judge at the location on Nov. 3, but she wasn’t feeling well and decided to sit out.

From 7 a.m. until 7 p.m. on Election Day, residents walk into what election judges Jackson, Linda Webster and Carol Nielson call “the little house,” which is across the lot from the Jackson family’s actual home. During check-in, voters can take a seat on the black futon across from the table and then take their ballot into the kitchen where they can vote either on paper or with the touch-screen machine, using a straw to mitigate the spread of COVID-19.

At the end of the 12 hour day, these poll workers bring the locked voting box holding the ballots of the precinct’s roughly 35 registered voters to the Goshen County Courthouse for counting. Just two of them are needed to bring the secure red box inside, but Jackson, Webster and Nielson will all make the 45 minute trip to Torrington and back. 

The Chugwater community is physically spread out, so the day is a chance for these women to socialize with one another and with their neighbors. 

“It’s for us to just have social time together that we never get,” Webster said.

As of 8:40 a.m. on Election Day, eight residents voted via absentee ballots and three residents cast ballots in-person, including Nielson, who was first in line to make sure the equipment was functioning properly.

Jackson voted by mail, thinking she was going to be placed to work outside of her precinct, in Hawk Springs. Webster’s husband cast the precinct’s second vote on his way to work, but she figured she had all day to do so herself. 

Their busiest time of day is usually early afternoon, they said, because the precinct consists mostly of farmers and ranchers. 

“There’s critters that take priority in the morning, and then they’ll come” Jackson said. 

Precinct 20-1 is unique in more than just its polling place. It lies near the line between Goshen and Platte counties in what is known as the Chugwater Cemetery District, which is shared between the counties, according to Platte County’s website. 

This precinct is part of Goshen County, but the ballot lists candidates for the Platte County School District No. 1 school board, where their young residents are enrolled in school. 

As counties throughout the state are having to drastically cut their budgets, the women said they are happy Goshen County has maintained its remote polling places, including in Iowa Center. 

Nielson said if not for the Iowa Center precinct, she would have to travel 42 miles to the Rendezvous Center in Torrington, where the majority of Goshen County residents vote. 

“And would my husband do that? I doubt it,” she said.

“I know of a family here in our precinct that would not vote if they had to go past here, and they have said as much” Jackson said. “So it’s important to help cater to that and keep involvement.”

Besides convenience, voting in a neighbor’s living room or kitchen fosters “community spirit,” Jackson said. 

And that’s why Jackson, Nielson and Webster pin their red, white and blue election judge tags to their shirts and wait for voters until 7 p.m. And apparently, it works. The precinct where just 26 residents voted in 2016 is home to five of the county’s 75 poll workers, a number they’re proud of.