National: ‘Our democracy can’t function’ without poll workers. Here’s how some states are protecting them | Phillip M. Bailey/USA Today
Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon is nervous about the 2024 presidential election. The Gopher State will need roughly 30,000 elections workers to oversee and administer hundreds of polling places, but it’s becoming difficult to get civic-minded Americans to volunteer. That’s because Minnesota, like many other states, saw an uptick in abusive behavior towards poll workers leading up to last year’s midterms, he said. “If we continue to see a climate that is increasingly negative or unwelcoming to them, we’re going to have problems recruiting and retaining those folks,” Simon told USA TODAY. “It is a problem in Minnesota. It is a problem nationally.”
Full Article: Ahead of 2024, election workers get new protections in some states