'We're Going To Make It': Rogers County Election Board Prepares For Early Voting After Tornado Damages Building

The Rogers County election board office's power was back on Tuesday after eight days without electricity since the tornado.

There is a lot of damage inside and outside of the office.

Early voting takes place in the building a week from Thursday.

The calendar only gets busier with the August and November elections coming up.

The lights are back on, and the clean-up continues inside the Rogers County election board office.

The building was within reach of the EF3 tornado, and it's easy to tell. There's a new, temporary front door after the previous entry was blown out.

“First thing I noticed, both my doors were gone,” said Rogers County Election Board Secretary Julie Dermody. “Whenever I was able to crawl through some of the debris, found out that the glass was just everywhere.”

Although it was the middle of the night, Dermody says the top priority after the storm was securing the building since ballots and voting machines are stored inside.

The morning after the madness shined a light on damage to the building's frame, and an outside wall pushed out.

“Thankfully, we had a shipping container out there, and I think that stopped it from blowing that wall totally out,” Dermody said.

Dermody and her staff had to run the office on a generator since absentee ballot deadlines were approaching last week.

Engineers inspected the building and determined it would be OK to re-open with temporary repairs.

The ballots, machines, and other election day necessities survived the storm.

Despite all the headaches, the staff will be ready to go when election day arrives.

“It might be a little different when you walk in, but we're going to make it, and it's going to be beautiful, and we're just going to get people through here,” she said.

Dermody says she's grateful for the power crews and other helping hands to get things up and running.

Another temporary door is expected to be installed at the election board office in the coming days.

Early voting in Rogers County will be here and at a church in Owasso starting June 13th.