PAY RAISE: Election poll worker pay doubles in recruitment effort

As the big election is only a few months away in November, election boards across the state, like Tulsa County, are pulling out their checkbooks to recruit workers.

Poll workers help voters for 12 hours to ensure that results are received fairly and correctly.

In February, 2 News told you the Tulsa County Election Board was becoming more concerned about a lack of workers.

In Oklahoma, a shortage of workers is straining election boards. Tulsa County Election Board Secretary Gwen Freeman said they're desperate.

"Sounding the alarm that we're really getting low on poll workers and without our poll workers, obviously, we can't conduct elections," Freeman said.

The state took notice and passed Senate Bill 290 .

Starting July 1, it doubled pay for judges and clerks from $100 to $200, and election inspectors go from $110 to $225.

After some phone calls and research, 2 News learned this pay raise will be at election boards across Oklahoma.

Tom Dial, a poll inspector for six years in Tulsa County, said that given the amount of work he and others do, it should have happened a long time ago.

"It's well overdone," he said.

Now that he knows his pay has been raised, he hopes the younger generation will want to help.

"If I'm a college student and I can make two hundred dollars a day and maybe skip a class or two. I would call that a win," Dial said.

Now, applying to be a poll worker is easy as three steps as long as you fit the requirements.

First, go to your county election board website. Find 'Poll Workers' and click on the 'Apply' tab. Then, fill out the required information, and your election board will get back to you in a few weeks. Here is the link to apply Poll Worker Opportunties.

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