Jay Phagan / CC
GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – With just over two weeks to the Presidential election, there’s some concern about whether there’s enough poll workers to staff polling sites.
“This is democracy, we need to make sure these run fairly and smoothly,” Green Bay alderman Chris Wery said.
Officials say poll workers make that happen.
“They are critical, as we saw in spring if you have two, three, four hour waits, it causes people to get pretty frustrated, or some even gave up,” Wery said.
And with record turnout expected this November, even more poll workers are needed.
“Because they’re going to need to process those in-person election day voters and process those absentees at the polls on election day. So having enough poll workers is critical,” Wisconsin Elections Commission Interim Administrator Meagan Wolfe said.
The Wisconsin Elections Commission says a survey of local elections officials last week showed 51 Wisconsin municipalities had a critical or serious need for poll workers, totaling 180 openings across the state,
“It looks like perhaps in Green Bay they have a shortage of about 30, that’s the biggest one,” Wolfe said.
“That’s the ideal number, you know where people can have breaks, you know, otherwise you have to sit there pretty much for 12 straight hours without a break” Wery said. “Otherwise I’m hoping the National Guard will be available if we would need it and this time we would use it.”
“The guard will play a role, as much as they are needed,” Gov. Tony Evers said on Thursday. “The National Guard will be there to make sure that we have enough people working the polls.”
Poll workers are responsible for organizing voters as they come in, verifying their IDs, and handing out the ballots.
“We have a very older group of people who are poll workers, people in their 70’s and 80’s, and you know, they’re in the higher risk category,” Wery said. “They didn’t want to put themselves in that position, so we lost 80% to 90% of our workers, we’ve had to basically re-recruit our entire position.”
Alder Wery says he initially brought up the idea of hazard pay, or bumping up pay for poll workers to $350.
“Part of you wants to think it’s people wanting to do their patriotic duty and wanting to step up, and I’m sure that’s part of it, but I think the extra pay also helps,” Wery said.
FOX 11 asked Wery how he thought the November election might look differently than the spring election.
Wery said: “I think it will be night and day, I think because of the absentee votes and what we really worked hard on in the last few months with the locations and workers, I think it’ll be just a normal Election Day.”
Only now.. with face shields, masks, hand sanitizer, and physical distancing.
If you’re interested in becoming a poll worker, you can find information on how to apply by clicking here.
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