Please sign up now because training is required in order to work at the polls.
Ray Levy-Uyeda
Tue 1 Sep 2020 10.03 EDT
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there’s a dire poll worker shortage around the country that could threaten the presidential election.
Elderly and retired people normally comprise a large portion of poll workers, but this year many of them have dropped out over fears of contracting Covid-19. In the 2016 presidential election, about 917,694 poll workers were responsible for managing more than 100,000 polling sites. This year, even as half of the American electorate is expected to vote by mail, states are facing stark staffing challenges.
In March, 800 poll workers in Palm Beach county, Florida, didn’t show up for their scheduled precinct shifts, causing many locations to open late, if at all. Ahead of the April primary election in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, only five out of 180 polling locations opened, largely because of poll worker scarcity. In July, the Maryland Association of Election Officials reported a poll worker shortage of nearly 14,000 people, referring to the lack of workers as an “emergency situation”. More often than not, the closures affected people of color the most.
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Spencer Berg, the recruitment coordinator for the Wake county board of elections in North Carolina, said young people were taking the initiative to sign up themselves. In prior elections, the county might receive 70 total applications from young people, but this year, they have hit that number and expect it to climb to 100 students. “We’ve just been really fortunate with people wanting to do their part and pitch in,” Berg said.
Berg attributes young people’s interest in supporting the county’s election efforts not just in the opportunity to become civically engaged, but as a response to coronavirus itself. Berg said: “Everyone is going through the same thing, you kind of feel almost helpless, defeating.
“I think people see that they can give back.”
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