BENTON, Ark. (KATV) — It’s becoming increasingly difficult across the country to find people willing to become election poll workers but one Arkansas county is finding ways to push for recruiting efforts.
Saline County received 140 to 200 new tablets this week as part of their preparation for the 2024 election year.
Trevor Villines, communications director for the county, said the new technology will be great but he believes poll workers are the backbone of their election system.
“You got a county of 123,000 some odd people,” he said. “You’ve got 22 Election Day sites and four early voting sites. Those sites don’t work themselves.”
According to Villines, they have a goal to find nearly 200 poll workers for next year. He said they have tried to get the word out through social media, their website, and through education sectors.
Villines said the amount of election workers needed will require a lot of help.
“Primaries we have see somewhere between 30 to 42% voter turnout and then in the general election we could easily see between 60 to 75% voter turnout,” he said. “So it’s gonna be all hands on deck.”
Villines said requirements to be a poll worker include being a registered voter in Saline County, be at least 18 years of age, and attend mandatory election worker training.
Lois Burks, former chairwoman of the Saline County Election Commission, knows the dedication it takes to have a successful election. She said poll workers have to be patient people to get through the democratic process.
“You think about people tying up for early voting, two weeks of their time in what amounts to 10 hour days,” Burks said. “That’s a big task.”
She said there’s a lot of pressure on poll workers during an election year and that those positions are not to be taken lightly.
“You can’t just say sure I’ll do this and its over in an afternoon. It’s not,” she said. “There’s training, there’s actually doing the work, there’s facing the public.”
Villines said despite poll worker issues during the 2020 presidential elections, they have a great track record of getting votes tallied in a timely fashion and upload the results on their website.
“Whether it be in the 2024 primary election or even the 2024 general election, we want folks to know that every legal ballot will be casted in Saline County,” he said.
For more information on how to become a poll worker in Saline County, residents can call the Saline County Clerk’s Office at (501) 303-5630 or click here.
