Hamilton County elections need your help. That’s the obvious takeaway from the county Board of Elections’ recent post-mortem of the snafu-filled Nov. 3 election. The board found that 84 percent of its polling stations had problems on Election Day. Among other issues, many poll workers struggled with the setup for electronic poll site equipment. Some local high school seniors assisting at the polls played hero by adroitly dealing with electronic issues. Clearly, Hamilton County needs more poll workers comfortable with troubleshooting a wi-fi router connection. It takes about 2,600 workers to operate the county’s polls on Election Day, and while the Board of Election has done well making sure polling locations are staffed, it needs workers who are fluent in using technology.
Enter a new program proposed by the Board of Elections: Partners in Democracy. The program and its founding idea, a Day Off For Democracy, have the potential to rejuvenate the county’s poll worker force, a crucial foundation for well-executed elections.
The program, and the current “Youth At The Booth” program, needs buy-in from leaders – be they business, government or education. Both programs are crucial recruiting tools to ensure poll stations are tech savvy.
“The idea is, the more, better people that we can have who are willing to work at polling locations on Election Day, the better our elections will be,” said Board of Elections member Chip Gerhardt.
Full Article: Editorial: Poll workers needed.