Over 29,000 apply towork at county polls
Muhammed Nasrullah was ready to call it quits. Afterworking as an election judge in every Harris County contest since 2004, the novel coronavirus pandemic discouraged the 67-year-old retired mechanical engineer from signing up again.
He is in a high-risk age group, and he knew friends who had contracted the virus. Then he began to read news stories about a nationwide shortage of pollworkers during the pandemic. And he was worried that delays in the U.S. Postal Service have undermined the public’s trust in mail ballots.
In such a consequential election Nov .3, with record turnout expected in Harris County, Nasrullah decided he would serve again.
“I convinced myself that the election is so important that I’m willing to take the risk,” he said. “I feel like I’m doing my civic duty, and it’s a good feeling.”
He is one of 11,000 poll workers Harris County Clerk Christopher
Hollins hopes to recruit this year, twice as many as in 2016. Hollins’ ambitious $27.2 million election plan includes nearly tripling the number of early voting sites and an 8 percent increase in poll locations on Election Day. He needs an army of poll workers to staff them.
The clerk’s office in August launched an aggressive social media campaign to recruit workers, and Hollins recorded a commercial.
By this week, 29,000 applications had arrived.
Rachelle Obakozuwa, polling locations and recruitment manager for the clerk’s office, attributed part of the increased interest to many residents believing the November presidential election is especially important.
“And for another, people really need work because of COVID and a lot of layoffs,” Obakozuwa said. “We’re seeing both equally.”
An increase in pay also may be a driver, she said.
In 2016, the gig paid $9 an hour and largely attracted retirees who do not have to worry about finding time off from work. Former County Clerk Diane Trautman increased the hourly wage last year to $17 for clerks and $20 for election judges.
With an additional week of early voting, Harris County will have 19 days of balloting, meaning a poll worker potentially could earn more than $2,500.
The county pays a lot better than Paul Fuentes’ old job at Whataburger. The 17year-old senior at James E. Taylor High School in Katy, who wants to study cybersecurity incollege, said he likes working at the polls because he can learn how the system works. “The other people who work there are really knowledgeable,” said Fuentes, who has worked Harris County elections since last year. “They’ve taught me a lot.”
Fuentes is one of about 2,000 student clerks Harris County recruited from Houston-area schools. As they often are more tech-savvy than older workers, Obakozuwa said, one of the students’ tasks will be to update the clerk’s wait-time app for polling places.
That task will be crucial to ensuring a smooth experience for residents, as the clerk’s office estimates each voter will spend far longer in the booth this year because of the elimination of straightticket voting. The hourslong lines to vote at some locations in the March primary election were partly blamed on a failure of pollworkers to update the app, leading voters to visit sites that already were crowded.
Under the Texas Election Code, counties do not hire most poll workers directly. Rather, county clerks recruit and train poll workers, who are selected by the Democratic and Republican election judges at each polling site.
Trace Menchaca said she answered the county Democratic Party’s call for election judges because she wanted to ensure voters had easy access to the polls during the pandemic. She said she interacts with the public every day at her family’s pet grocery store in northwest Houston and is confident the county can provide a safe, socially distant voting experience for residents and election staff.
While Gov. Greg Abbott’s statewide mask order exempts polling places, the clerk’s office election budget includes $2.5 million for personal protective equipment for employees.
“Knock on wood, I haven’t gotten sick yet,” Menchaca said. “I’m not nervous at all. It’s going to be brief exposure to people. I’m sure we’ll have every precaution taken.”