Recruiting remains a challenge as city seeks 4,000 workers for October vote
From the Home and Garden show and the Canadian Tulip Festival to the Great Glebe Garage Sale and the Good Companions seniors’ centre, staff from Ottawa’s elections office have criss-crossed the city this spring to recruit 4,000 people to work at polling stations on election day.
Sporting navy blue T-shirts and considerable enthusiasm for the democratic process, the teams of Elections Ottawa recruiters have scheduled more than two dozen outreach events. Their goal is to sign up people and spread the message that many hands will make light work on Oct. 22, when voters cast ballots for mayor, city councillors and school board trustees. ( Workers are also required for advance voting day on Oct. 12.)
“We’re trying to be where people are,” said Tyler Cox, the city ’s manager of legislative services, which includes the elections office.
Election day workers have a wide range of responsibilities — greeting voters, determining if they are on the voters’ list, managing ballots, processing ballots through the electronic vote tabulator, and assisting those with disabilities. Depending on the role assigned, workers are paid $250 to $300 for a day’s work.
Polls are open from 10 a.m. until 8 p.m. Workers must arrive at least an hour before the polling station opens and can’t leave, even to grab a coffee, until all the ballots at their station are counted. Most are done by 9 p.m.
It’s a long — and ultimately satisfying — day ’s work, Cox said. “It’s a great way to get involved in the community and the democratic process.”
That may be so, but he admitted that recruiting the number of workers needed is an evergreen challenge. It was exacerbated in on election day in 2014 when close to 100 people who had signed up called in sick.
In its report on the 2015 federal election, Elections Canada, which hired 285,000 election workers that year, acknowledged recruitment is hard. “It is increasingly difficult to find enough people willing to accept the positions,” the report said. To ease the burden, the chief electoral officer allowed local returning officers to hire 16- and 17-year-olds. In some case, the election day work experience formed part of the students’ curricula.
This fall, there will be 65 more places to vote in Ottawa than there were in 2014.
The increase is mainly due to growth in the suburbs, new condominium buildings and a jump in the number of retirement homes, Cox said.
According to Ontario’s Election Act, locations with 100 or more dwelling units require a polling station, as do hospitals and longterm care homes with more than 20 beds, and retirement homes with more than 50 beds.
Election workers don’t need experience. They don’t even need to be eligible to vote, as long as they are legally allowed to work in Canada. Workers must be 16 or older. Bilingualism is an asset.
The deadline to apply is July 6. Training sessions will be held in August and September.