Iowa Secretary of State, Paul Pate, is trying to recruit more people to work at the polls in the state’s 99 counties during election nights.
“We want to make sure we’ve got a reserve. We are looking for more diversity. With all these new folks coming on as voters — it’s a perfect time to add some of these new folks onto the list,” Pate says. “We need more than 10,000 folks as workers. Personally, I’d like to be more at 12,000 be more flexible on the hours of their poll workers.”
He says poll workers get paid and the training is not difficult. “Basically they are checking in the voters. They’re going to make sure they have the correct ballot in the right precinct. They are going to ensure elections run smoothly in each of their precincts,” he says.
Pate says you can sign up at pollworker.Iowa.gov. “Well get you some more information. The county auditor can reach out to you and get you on board. For most poll workers it is a one-day commitment. Some poll workers choose to put a little time in and help in other ways, because we have early voting and absentee voting and that process takes a little extra work. We do use poll workers for that,” according to Pate.
The primary elections are on June 7th and the general elections are on November 8th. Pate made his comments as part of national Poll Worker Recruitment Day Tuesday.
(By Woody Gottburg, KSCJ, Sioux City)