Local election officials all over the country are having a hard time finding poll workers for the Nov. 6 election, Matt Vasilogambros reports for Stateline. That could lead to longer lines, fewer people voting because they are discouraged by long lines, more confusion, and miscounted ballots.
"In its 2016 biennial survey, the U.S. Election Assistance Commission found that two-thirds of jurisdictions had a hard time recruiting enough poll workers on Election Day, compared to fewer than half of officials in 2008 and 2012," Stateline reports. According to a 2013 review, the lack of reliable, well-trained poll workers was one of the "signal weaknesses" of the locally driven election system.
"The primary causes of the problem, according to a 2014 report from New York-based think tank Demos, are a lack of uniform training before Election Day, disparate wages, and little recruitment among public employees and high school and college students," Stateline reports.
"The group’s efforts seem to be working. Nationally, organizers have recruited more than 2,400 people — 924 of whom live in Pennsylvania, where organizers have spent more time because needs are more acute," Stateline reports.
"In its 2016 biennial survey, the U.S. Election Assistance Commission found that two-thirds of jurisdictions had a hard time recruiting enough poll workers on Election Day, compared to fewer than half of officials in 2008 and 2012," Stateline reports. According to a 2013 review, the lack of reliable, well-trained poll workers was one of the "signal weaknesses" of the locally driven election system.
Recruitment and retention is the source of the problem, according to Aerion Abney, the Pennsylvania state director of All Voting Is Local, a project of the Leadership Conference Education Fund, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit. Poll workers are underpaid, and most are middle-aged or senior citizens; 56 percent in a 2016 poll were 61 or older, according to the commission's survey.
All Voting is Local organizers say they're trying to change all that; last month they launched what they say is the first multi-state poll worker recruitment drive, featuring an online campaign and targeted billboard, digital newspaper, radio and social-media ads in Arizona, Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, Staeline reports. Organizers especially want to recruit people of color and younger people, and say they want to poll workers reflect the communities in which they serve so voters will feel more welcome.
"The group’s efforts seem to be working. Nationally, organizers have recruited more than 2,400 people — 924 of whom live in Pennsylvania, where organizers have spent more time because needs are more acute," Stateline reports.
Younger poll workers tend to be enthusiastic, energetic, comfortable with technology and are more likely to remain poll workers for years to come, according to Sherry Poland, the director of elections in Hamilton County, Ohio (Cincinnati). "It sparks an interest in voting and civic engagement at an early age that might last a lifetime," Poland told Stateline.
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