Volunteer poll workers drown on a flood-washed highway in rural Missouri on Election Day
Chuck and Cathie Baldwin were driving in the dark early on Election Day to work a shift at their polling place in rural Missouri when water rushed over a creek and their vehicle was swept off the road. The couple, who were married for more than half a century, were later found dead, clinging to a tree and each other.
Wright County Sheriff Sonny Byerley said the Baldwins — who regularly volunteered to help with elections — tried to swim to dry land but drowned, among at least five people who died Tuesday when heavy rains drenched the state.
“Whenever I went to the polls, they were there and they were always happy to be a part of it,” said Byerley, who oversees the county of about 19,000 residents 210 miles southeast of Kansas City. “They did believe in the American republic and the voting system.”
The state highway patrol and sheriff’s office did not release their names. They say only that the deceased man was 70 and the woman was 73. But the Baldwins’ daughter, Michelle Baldwin-Bostian, of North Carolina, confirmed their identities on Wednesday.
The news spread quickly among the couple’s friends in small, tight-knit, unincorporated Manes, Missouri, where voters filled out their ballots at a music hall that regularly hosts performances by local artists.
In this heavily Republican-leaning community, the Baldwins were rare Democrats, so they were asked to join a bipartisan team working the polls, said Patty Squirell, 52, who worked with Cathie Baldwin at a liquor store in nearby Mountain. Bush.
“Cathie was an angel here on earth,” she said. “She was so open-minded and so loving and so kind. And we are all in deep mourning.”
Tanisha Ledford, who lived on the same dirt road as the couple for 10 years, recalled watching her children when she worked three jobs and sometimes didn’t get home until 3 a.m.
“You can’t go wrong with either one,” Ledford said. “Chuck stood up for the innocent and Cathie would feed the poor. She did. I saw her do it. No one around her went hungry.”
Lindsi Snyder, a teacher at Manes Elementary, said her parents were close to the Baldwins. She described how Chuck was not yet 18 when he met Cathie and that the young couple in love quickly decided they wanted to get married.
In 2022, Cathie Baldwin celebrated their 52nd wedding anniversary with a Facebook post calling Chuck “the love of my life.”
The sheriff said the Baldwins were driving on a two-lane highway in the dark around 4:30 a.m. Tuesday when their car was suddenly swept away by the waters of the fast-rising Beaver Creek.
Three teenage boys in another car that was swept away at about the same time were able to get to safety and knocked on the door of a nearby home to call 911. Byerley said the boys then returned to the rising water to try to reach the water. the Baldwins.
“They were out of their car and holding onto a tree,” Byerley said of the couple.
But the current was too strong and the teenagers couldn’t reach it.
Byerley used a drone and saw the cuddling couple clinging to low-lying tree branches, but rescuers were unable to reach them in time. Cathie and Chuck died in each other’s arms, the sheriff said.
Snyder arrived at the music hall later that morning. She remembered how she and Chuck used to tease each other and how she told her daughter she couldn’t wait to see him at the polls.
After she voted, she asked an election worker where Chuck was.
“And they say, ‘Lindsi, didn’t you know?’”
Snyder said she immediately burst into tears. Her friends had drowned about two miles from the music hall.
“He would do anything for anyone,” she said of Chuck, a retired construction worker. ‘He was just a good person. They both were.”
More than 10 inches of rain has fallen in parts of the state since Sunday, and flooding has closed more than 100 roads and highways statewide. More rain is forecast for Saturday.
The rapidly rising Meramec River threatened several homes and businesses on the outskirts of St. Louis, including in Pacific, Missouri, where city leaders encouraged many of the 7,500 residents to evacuate their homes. Officials have canceled classes at schools in and around the Pacific for the rest of the week.
The river is expected to peak on Friday at a level that could cause major flooding. The city provided sand and bags for those who wanted to create makeshift flood barriers. Authorities warned the river could also flood homes and close roads and a state park in nearby Eureka, Missouri.
Hannah Kelly, a Missouri Republican who represents Wright County, said she knew the Baldwins and sometimes encountered them at auctions.
“It doesn’t matter what party line someone falls on today, whether you’re sad or happy the morning after the election, I think we can all agree it’s heartbreaking,” Kelly said.
Their former neighbor, meanwhile, reflected on the fact that the Baldwins died together while performing a service for the community.
“I believe with all my heart that the Lord planned that because neither could have existed in any way without the other,” Ledford said. “They were actually made for each other. You know, people say that, but it actually happened to them.”