Poll Workers Needed

Return to Election Data Dispatches.

Finding enough poll workers is a challenge for election officials across the country, and data from the federal Election Assistance Commission back this up.

In both 2008 and 2010, nearly one-third of jurisdictions nationwide found it very difficult or somewhat difficult to "obtain sufficient poll workers," according to the EAC's Election Administration and Voting Survey.

Several jurisdictions provided detail about the challenges they face when it comes to recruiting poll workers.

"In some rural areas, it was somewhat difficult to recruit poll workers," according to Maricopa County, Arizona officials in the 2010 survey. "We do ask poll workers to work outside of their precinct, but many of the rural areas were just too far for some out-of-precinct workers to accept."

And ever-changing election administration laws have had an impact as well.

"Persons are not as willing to serve now that rules and regulations have increased," according to one South Dakota jurisdiction. "They are concerned with being sued. The pay is not enough to entice them to serve.