Ohio needs thousands more poll workers

Ohio nearly has the bare minimum number of poll workers it needs to pull off the November election, but it still needs thousands of election workers to be prepared for cancellations and no-shows during the pandemic.

The state’s 88 county boards of elections reported to Ohio Secretary of State Frank Larose that they have hired 33,577 poll workers, just short of the 37,057 minimum that will be needed for Election Day.

Even though local boards are close to reaching their minimum staffing for the election, they still need 26,635 more poll workers so they can be prepared for cancellations, which has become a bigger concern during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I think we have a tradition as a nation of stepping up. Certainly I think Ohio has that tradition,” Larose said Thursday during a meeting of his Ready for November Task Force.

Fears that poll workers would not show up for the March primary — or would be exposed to the coronavirus if they did — contributed to the decision to close the polls hours before they were to open and to transition to a mostly by-mail election.

But Larose has said he is committed to having in-person voting on Election Day even though he is encouraging voters to cast absentee ballots, either by mail or in person during the state’s early-voting period.

Absentee-ballot requests already are flooding local boards of elections, and that is expected to pick up now that Larose has begun sending applications to all the state’s registered voters.

Larose directed county boards of elections to start early on surveying their poll workers this summer to ensure they will have enough to conduct the election.

Complicating the recruitment of poll workers, though, is political-party balance. Ohio law says that no more than half a county’s poll workers may be affiliated with a particular party. So if a county has 100 poll workers, only 50 may come from one party. The remaining 50 may comprise a mix of other parties or unaffiliated poll workers.

Ohio determines party affiliation based on whether a voter took a Republican or Democratic ballot in the primary election.

More Democrats than Republicans have committed to be poll workers on

Election Day. That means that county boards of elections still need to recruit nearly 12,000 Democrats and almost 15,000 Republicans to be poll workers to hit the state’s goal.

Only Adams and Erie counties have hired enough poll workers to reach their goals.

Both Medina and Preble counties have not hired a single poll worker, according to the secretary of state’s office.

The state’s three largest counties alone still need thousands of poll workers. In Franklin County, where the hiring goal is more than 5,600, nearly 3,400 more are needed. Cuyahoga County needs 2,800 more to hit its goal of 5,850. Hamilton County is about 1,800 short of the more than 3,700 it needs.

Larose said Thursday that his office has offered several resources for local boards of elections to recruit poll workers.

The state has a “Youth at the Booth” program that allows 17-year-old high school seniors to be poll workers even though they aren’t old enough to vote — a service that Larose said would look good on college applications. Another initiative encourages military veterans to become poll workers.

Larose also has encouraged corporations to give employees a paid day off to become poll workers, and he noted that professional license groups, such as lawyers and accountants, can earn continuing education credit by becoming poll workers.

A new program, Work A Day and Donate Your Pay, would allow precinct elections officials to donate their pollworker pay to a nonprofit group.

Recruiting poll workers is a yearround job, said Pete Zeigler, director of the Geauga County Board of Elections.

“We don’t treat poll worker recruitment and retention like it’s a periodic thing. Creating a culture where poll workers are appreciated and included goes year-round,” he said during the task force meeting. rrouan@dispatch.com @Rickrouan