Heroes of Democracy: Shawnee resident serves 29 years as precinct official

For about 29 years, Shawnee resident Peggy Harwell has been a precinct official in Pottawatomie County, making her the longest serving poll worker in the county.

According to Harwell, she grew up in Tecumseh, graduated from Tecumseh High School and moved to Shawnee in October of 1969 after building her own home.

"A year and five days later, a tornado destroyed that home," Harwell said. "Luckily, I was shopping for furniture that day and not at home."

She said despite the tornado, she was able to rebuild her house on the same property and has lived there for the last 52 years.

The 87-year-old said April will be the 29th anniversary of her time with the Pottawatomie County Election Board.

More: Pottawatomie County endures winter storm

More: Construction of $6 million Pottawatomie County Administration building progresses

During those nearly three decades, Harwell has served as an Alternate and was nominated as the Regular County Election Board Member.

"In 2000 I started serving as an Absentee Board Member during early in-person voting," she said.

For Harwell, the best aspect of working on elections is seeing and meeting people.

"I went to work for OG&E when I was 18-years-old as a cashier for over 40 years," Harwell said. "I enjoyed providing customer service all those years. Working the elections allows me to keep serving the people."

She explained it's important to be a precinct official so people can vote and vote early.

Harwell encourages those thinking about becoming a precinct official to at least try it out.

"See how you can enjoy it and seeing the people of our county," Harwell said.

The most impactful election she's worked on was the 2016 election.

"The 2016 election was the one I think of most because so many people turned out for that election," she said. "Our Absentee polls closed at 6 p.m. but we had so many in line that it was 6:45 before we were actually finished."

Going forward, Harwell hopes the county continues to grow and more people will volunteer to be precinct workers.

"I’m the only one in my family that has ever worked for the county," Harwell said. "Being involved and working for the election board allows me to see people that I’m not able to see very often. I love seeing the people from my community.

Heroes of Democracy is a special series this election year as the News-Star profiles those who help make local elections possible.

This article originally appeared on The Shawnee News-Star: Peggy Harwell serves 29 years as Pottawatomie County precinct official