by Gil Corsey –
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — As the mid-term elections approach, county clerks across the state of Kentucky report a shortage of precinct workers, and political fatigue and apathy may be the root causes.
“It is a real challenge anymore to find poll workers,” Jefferson County Clerk Bobbie Holsclaw said. “People don’t seem to be as interested.”
Holsclaw said her office recruits from local colleges, businesses and senior centers in an attempt to fill the positions needed for Jefferson County’s 620 precincts.
The poll worker shortage emerged at an election security hearing in Frankfort last week. Those who run the polls are considered part of the front line of a free and fair election process.
“We have a two-and-a-half-hour training, and then we turn them loose with the most important thing that I do in my whole life twice a year,” Madison County Clerk Kenny Barger said.
Barger told lawmakers at the hearing that he had no Republican alternates at the time for the upcoming election. Currently, polling centers must have parity among Republican and Democratic workers, but the Kentucky Clerk’s association is asking the legislature to adjust the requirements for future elections by reducing the number of precinct officers, allowing those registered as independents to serve and for the state to relax the blackout time where you can’t work the polls if you switch parties.
“Basically, if you switch parties, you can’t work for a year-and-a-half or so,” Barger said. “And that happens accidentally to a lot of people when they go to driver’s license. If they don’t select a party, then they get registered as an independent.”
Officials said the average age of a poll worker is 65 in Kentucky, but clerks say it’s more than the numbers.
“There’s been no change other than the atmosphere, “Fayette County Clerk Don Blevins Jr. said. “The antagonism between the two parties is making a lot of people just feel like, ‘I don’t want to deal with this.'”
Statewide, it takes 15,000 precinct workers to run an Election Day in Kentucky. The pay varies by place from $100 to $200 for the 13-hour day.
“I think it’s voter apathy,” Holsclaw said. “We can only look at our ourselves for that.”
Election Day is Nov. 6.
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