AUBURN, Ky. — Outside Bowling Green in Auburn, Ky., you will find Don Davis greeting guests at Carriage House Vineyards. Believe it or not, wineries like this one have become a new hot spot for attracting poll workers for the general election coming up in November.
Secretary of State Michael Adams contacted Davis over the summer to see if the winery could help spread a message about the need for poll workers, particularly of the younger generations. Davis and his wife, Lisa, were happy to help.
There are now tags on all the Carriage House Vineyards wine bottles that reads "Poll Workers Needed" with a QR code that will take people to the Secretary of State's website.
Davis said when Adams gave him a call this summer, he thought about the early days of his business. They could grow the grapes and make the wine on the property, but they could not sell on site in Logan County.
“We are actually in dry territory. For us to be able to sell wine on our property, we had to have a precinct vote. Just for our business to grow, we had to be a part of the process on the other side of it," said Davis.
Seeing the way his business was directly impacted by elections, Davis said he was happy to help.
Adams launched his "SOS From Your SOS" campaign in 2020 to recruit poll workers after thousands of volunteers across the state declined to participate prior to the availability of COVID-19 vaccines.
“It was highly successful," said Adams. "Certainly in a localized fashion, parts of our state that had breweries we saw a big jump in those areas in respect to getting poll workers."
This year, he kept that partnership with the Kentucky Guild of Brewers, but expanded the initiative to some wineries as well. He hopes to attract more young people to work the polls.
You can watch Adams' full interview with Spectrum News in the player above.
Adams said Kentucky has relied on senior citizens to man the polls, but that was a tough ask in 2020 as seniors were among those most at risk for COVID-19 complications. Now that vaccines are readily available, Adams said we are seeing some of those seniors return to be poll workers this November. While COVID-19 may not be as much of a threat to recruitment this year, Adams worried election misinformation could be.
"Nobody wants to sign up and volunteer for 12 hours and then get paid a couple hundred bucks and get yelled at by crazy people. Fortunately, we have not really seen that impact our recruitment. I think that is partly because we proactively went out there and explained these things were false and that these people were endangering our system," said Adams.
Despite the hurdles, the SOS From Your SOS initiative seems on to be helping. Davis said several people have asked him about the tags and the need for poll workers. It also inspired his wife to sign up to become one, but she was told they didn't need any more poll workers in her county for this election. With that being said, she is on the list as an alternate.
"I don't have any county that is in dire need. In fact, we have about 30 counties now that have opened up every single precinct. That is actually pretty remarkable considering all we have been through the last couple of years," said Adams. "Here is what we need now is alternates. People do wake up sick on election day and they can't come. Then you have to call an alternate."
Participating breweries this year include:
- Dreaming Creek Brewery, 109 East Irvine St., Richmond, Ky. 40475
- Noble Funk Brewing Company, 922 South 2nd St., Louisville, Ky. 40203
Participating wineries this year include:
- Carriage House Vineyards, 259 Longview Lane, Auburn, Ky. 42206
- Traveler's Cellar Winery, 3220 Furqua Rd., Rockfield, Ky. 42274
- 12 Mile Creek Winery, 11065 Flagg Springs Pike, California, Ky. 41007
- Baker-Bird Winery & Distillery, 1941 Bradford Rd., Foster, Ky. 41043
- Boucherie Winery, 6523 Keyway Dr., Spottsville, Ky. 42458
You can sing up to be a poll worker here.