Early voters at the Clay County Courthouse in Moorhead, and those casting their ballots on Election Day, might feel like they’ve stepped back in time. Two voting booths from the 1940s were found during a recent cleanup and they’ve been put back in service. Deputy Auditor Nancy Krenelka says,”When we first found them, they had a string wrapped with a pencil hanging from the top, and we did take those out because we can’t use pencils anymore. But we put in the pens and people been liking ’em.” The aluminum booths with red, white and blue canvas curtains are on the second floor of the Clay County Courthouse.
Krenelka says, “The maintenance department found them underneath one of the stairways in a large metal box. They asked me if I wanted them and I said ‘sure’.” Krenelka was determined to make them suitable for this year’s election. “We got them set up and they were a little funky-smelling,” Krenelka says, so she took the curtains home, bleached them, and washed and ironed them.