Ga. seeks more poll workers, quicker glitch fixes for Nov. 3 general election

Capitol Beat News Service

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger on Monday outlined steps election officials are taking to curb long lines and issues with mail-in voting requests ahead of the Nov. 3 general election.

Around 6,000 poll workers have been recruited with help from the Georgia Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and the American Civil Liberties Union to boost staff numbers at polling places after many poll workers abstained from the June 9 primary due to health risks from COVID-19,

Raffensperger said.

To head off technical issues and equipment gaps, Raffensperger’s office has sent spreadsheets to county election officials so they can track inventory and training needs to smooth over any future hiccups quicker than was done during the primary.

County election officials have also started tapping grant funds to install drop boxes for voters to deposit absentee ballots rather than vote in-person on Election Day, Raffensperger said. So far, 175 drop boxes have been installed in the state.

Additionally, Raffensperger’s

office is set to launch an online absentee ballot request portal in the coming days to ease the burden local election officials had ahead of the June 9 primary to process a wave of mail-in ballot requests.

Overall, Raffensperger said local officials and poll workers should be better equipped to handle potential technical issues that may crop up on Election Day based on lessons learned from the coronavirus-impacted primary.

“While no election is ever perfect, it is likely November will have its issues,” Raffensperger said Monday. “We have dedicated time, effort and significant resources to make November a success.”

Raffensperger’s comments came during a virtual roundtable with most Republican members of Georgia’s congressional delegation and U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis, RIll., ranking member on the U.S. House Committee on House Administration.

The roundtable also featured input from some election officials in Fulton County, where voters faced among the longest lines and technical issues in the state during the primary.

Mark Wingate, a Republican

member of the Fulton County Board of Registration and Elections, said the county will be back up to its full roster of 210 polling places on Election Day after several sites closed for the primary due to worker shortages and COVID-19 safety concerns.

He also said county officials received a flood of pollworker applications after the primary, enabling them to now tap a reliable supply of workers to be fully staffed on Nov. 3.

“I can assure you that through the staff and the board and all the help from the county in particular, we’re ramped up and we’re moving this as well and as humanly possible as we can,” Wingate said Monday.

In Augusta, poll workers are set to receive an extra $40 per day in hazard pay to support increased responsibilities for workers to keep voting equipment clean and make sure people are spaced out in line to curb the chances for coronavirus transmissions.

“The last thing we want are overcrowded conditions in our polling places,” said Lynn Bailey, executive director of the Richmond County Board of Elections.