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Hayley Harding here, your intrepid Votebeat Michigan reporter and noted fan of animals with government jobs. I’ve gathered you all here today to discuss what I’m confident we can all agree is the most important issue of our times: pets, and their indispensable contributions to democracy.
You may remember that over the past few weeks, we’ve asked you to take part in our own pet election. We don’t have results quite yet — stay tuned! — but pets are more than Votebeat co-reporters.
I’ve heard of a number of election offices across the country that have an animal or two to serve as an unofficial mascot. I’d like to tell you about one dear to my heart: Pumpkin, the cat who lives, and works (obviously), in the Athens County Board of Elections.
Athens County is in southeastern Ohio, and its county seat, Athens, is home to my alma mater, Ohio University. Athens is a classic college town — campus melds with the surrounding neighborhoods, and many of the city and county offices are just a short walk from the university proper.
That includes the Athens County Board of Elections, and its elderly star, Pumpkin. When I was a student in 2018, Pumpkin would regularly sit in the window of the Board of Elections office, looking out on Court Street. It earned him a lot of affection from students, and a regular spot on the various “Cats with Jobs” social media accounts (with a photo typically used without attribution from a fellow OU alum, reporter Sam Howard).
Pumpkin has become the face of voting in Athens. While he’s largely retired from the front window — preferring instead to supervise from under desks — his visage still appears on T-shirts and posters encouraging people to vote. The university has even used pictures of Pumpkin to encourage students to “take the Bobcat voter pledge.” People regularly stop by the office to ask about him and occasionally make art dedicated to him.
“There’s a lot of people that will ask us to use his likeness and things like that. We don’t limit his likeness or anything,” Tony Brooks, director of the Athens County Board of Elections, said. The board even took a vote against limiting the use of his likeness or seeking to profit from it.
Brooks, director since March, estimates Pumpkin is now about 14½ years old — which is a pretty impressive age for a once flea-ridden cat who had to be rescued from college students by a previous director.
He is, by anyone’s best guess, probably the only cat running living in a Board of Elections office in Ohio. It’s not extra pressure, Brooks said, although people are sometimes disappointed when they come in to meet him during a busy election season and instead have to come back when his caretakers are less occupied with the business of democracy. (He doesn’t have an owner, per se — he’s more of a free agent, cared for by the entire staff.)
I have to know: Do you know of another election office pet? A salamander who keeps an eye on early voting? A dog sniffing out fraud? A chinchilla who doesn’t do a whole lot but looks VERY cute doing it? I need to know. You can reach me at hharding@votebeat.org.
