By JAN McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
The hours are long, the pay unremarkable … and the average age is inching up.
But the work is steeped in civic duty.
Come election day on Nov. 3, Wood County Board of Elections will need 400-420 poll workers for the mid-term election. Many of the same dependable workers return year after year to staff the elections – but as they grow older, Terry Burton and Julie Baumgardner, co-directors of the Wood County Board of Elections, work to fill vacant spots.
“We are always recruiting poll workers. It’s constant,” Burton said.
Each of the county’s 27 polling locations have to be staffed with an equal number of workers from the Democratic and Republican parties. The rules are pretty strict – and at the end of the election day, a member of each party must accompany the votes and equipment back to the board of elections office in Bowling Green.
The polling locations are staffed according to the number of voters assigned to a particular voting site. For example, the small polling place in Portage has just eight workers, while the busy location at Alliance Church in Bowling Green has 26 workers.
Election day is demanding, with pollworkers arriving at 5:30 a.m. and not leaving until 9 p.m. or so. Each worker has to sign up for a full day. There has been some talk at the state legislative level about splitting up the shifts, but so far that hasn’t been done.
The average age of poll workers in Wood County is between 60 and 70 years old.
“Retired people are the ones who can give a whole day,” Baumgardner said.
Of the workers signed up for this past primary election, those age 71 and older accounted for 107 poll workers, and those 61 to 70 years old accounted for 87 workers. Two workers were 88 years old.
As more seniors work longer into retirement, and as more families are made up of two working adults, the board of elections also relies on people willing to take a day off to work the polls.
“We have some people who do that,” Burton said.
To qualify for the couple day a year job, poll workers must be registered voters, age 17 or older, and ideally able to lift about 20 pounds of election machinery.
Every new poll worker must undergo training, and all poll workers must go through new training every two years. Workers are paid $25 for attending the two-hour classes.
For staffing to the polls on election day, each worker receives $130, plus gets a lunch break and a couple smaller breaks if possible.
“More people do it out of civic duty – not for the money,” Burton said.
Many of the poll workers have been assigned to the same locations for years, decades even. And in some communities, the staffing numbers – and faces – remain steady.
“Some of our locations are super stable,” Burton said. “Once they are in it, they do develop their own little communities.”
In some cases, poll workers at certain voting sites form friendships that are refreshed on election days. And some sites are known for potlucks furnished by the poll workers, Baumgardner said.
The rural areas of the county tend to be more stable, with more frequent turnover in larger communities like Perrysburg, Rossford, North Baltimore and Fostoria.
And in some communities it can be difficult to recruit an equal number of Democrats and Republicans. For example, it can be a struggle to get enough Democrats in the Weston and Elmwood areas, and it can be a challenge to get enough Republicans in North Baltimore, Baumgardner said.
Presidential and mid-term years keep workers pretty busy, but elections with less interest are often staffed with fewer people, Burton said.
“With slow elections, the biggest problem is boredom,” he said. “It makes for a horribly long day.”
The Board of Elections tries to place the poll workers close to their own communities. And the office is always short on people willing to be put on the “last minute list,” to show up if a poll worker has a medical emergency.
Following are links to get more information on being a poll worker, and a form to fill out showing interest.
