MOSES LAKE - Enid Clay has been an integral part of the democratic process in Grant County for 60 years.

This year, for the first time, Clay can turn in her ballot and relax.

New drive-up ballot drop boxes are further automating an election process already streamlined by the elimination of polling stations in favor of mail-in ballots.

Clay first began volunteering at polling stations when Jack Petticord was the Grant County Auditor, she said. Clay was around 25 years old when she first began volunteering.

Volunteers arrived at 6 or 6:30 a.m. in order to open the polls by 7 a.m. They collected ballots all day at the grange hall and stayed until the doors closed at 8 p.m.

Because it was an all-day commitment, it was difficult to find volunteers, she said.

As auditors came and left, Clay was always there.

"She was a real dedicated poll worker ... I used to drop off the supplies and things at the polling place where she worked," said former Grant County Auditor Bill Varney.

"She was always bringing in food and things, cookies and donuts. It was a real friendly place to go and vote," he said with a laugh.

Before elections were all-mail, elections couldn't be run without poll workers, said Varney.

"You had to have the poll workers at the polling places, so they were an integral part of the whole process," he said.

While people like the sense of community they get when they vote at a polling place, plummeting turnout at the polls and the cost of operating polling places compared to mailing out ballots, led to all-mail elections, he said.

"We were actually running two separate kinds of elections, one at the polling place and one through the mail," he said. "And it was cheaper to do one or the other and more people were wanting to go toward the mail, so that's how it ended up ... It was great working with all those poll workers and the dedication they showed. I kind of hated to see it stop, but that's just kind of the way it went."

A sense of community was intrinsic to Clay's experience as a poll worker.

"When we got the vote by mail, we missed the people coming in to vote," Clay wrote of her experiences as a polling volunteer. "A lot of them came in just to see us."

It's seeing the same people every year that kept her going, she said.

"I had a lady that came in, her and her husband, with four of their kids to vote," she said. "Two of them just turned 18 and they were so excited to get to vote."

Even though she's sad to lose the camaraderie she experienced with voters and fellow volunteers over the years, Clay looks to the future with optimism.

"I've enjoyed it and it's time we changed and got things better, easier for the people," she said. "They can just drop off their ballots ... I think it's going to be a lot better."