Among the many campaigns being run for the March 2 elections,
the L.A. County Registrar is campaigning for some extra help at the
polls.
Los Angeles County, like many counties across California, does
not have enough poll workers to staff its polling locations for the
upcoming Democratic presidential primary elections.
With one week remaining before election day, Los Angeles County
is still 900 workers short for its 4,571 polling locations. The
county needs 22,000 total poll workers.
The County of Los Angeles Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk has
several programs in place to recruit additional workers ““
including on college campuses.
“We have had a student poll worker plan for some
time,” said Grace Chavez, a spokeswoman for the Registrar.
The Registrar has posted flyers around the UCLA campus and has had
solicitors on Bruin Walk in an effort to gain student workers.
Any person who is at least 18 years of age, a registered U.S.
citizen and a registered voter is eligible to work the polling
locations.
Poll worker volunteers receive 25 dollars for attending a
training session and as much as 55 dollars for working the polls
next Tuesday. Volunteers may work as long as 14 hours on election
day.
In addition to students, the Registrar has sought corporate
support.
With the Corporate Poll Worker Program, corporations lend the
service of one or more of their employees on election day and in
return, the L.A. County Board of Supervisors will hold a ceremony
to publicly recognize the corporations involved, according to a
press release.
Los Angeles County has only been seriously understaffed on
election day once before, Chavez said.
In March of 2002, changes in laws and discrepancies in party
rules led to numerous poll worker cancellations and undermanned
polling locations. The Registrar wants to avoid this to keep
workers’ hours down and to get votes tallied quickly.
The Registrar tries to staff each polling location with at least
five workers. If the need arises, the Registrar has a limited
number of employees ready to be dispatched to the polling locations
most in need of workers.
“At this point I wouldn’t say we’re at a
crisis level,” Chavez said. But, she added, they can use
every volunteer they can get.