With ‘heated’ Election Day ahead, Arkansas officials rally poll workers

Poll worker Darcy Smith (second from left) helps check in voters at Sequoyah United Methodist Church in Fayetteville on March 5, 2024. (Antoinette Grajeda/Arkansas Advocate)

Arkansans’ ability to vote in November falls heaviest on the shoulders of the people who staff polling places — a neighbor, a grocery store clerk or a friendly grandmother.

But in Arkansas counties with dwindling and aging populations, finding poll workers can be challenging. The current political climate also has some county officials concerned about their ability to staff voting locations in November.

Mike Adam, chair of the Jefferson County Election Commission, said officials consistently struggle to find enough poll workers for its 34 voting locations.

“[The population] is getting older, and the people that are younger are leaving,” Adam said. “Some of my very best poll workers in previous years are no longer doing it because they’re getting too old.”

Power the Polls , a national nonpartisan initiative to recruit the next generation of poll workers, is tracking a national shortage of election officials and recently identified four Arkansas counties that have an “urgent” need: Pulaski, Faulkner, Little River and Desha.

Aug. 1 is National Poll Workers Recruitment Day, and Power the Polls assesses needs by calling local officials, monitoring news articles and working with organizations. In Arkansas, the national initiative noted that counties in need are typically short a few dozen poll workers, Program Manager Marta Hanson said.

County election commissioners interviewed by the Advocate reported varying levels of readiness with the Election Day just three months away. Many officials said they will rely on workers from previous elections to return, though they’re also recruiting an adequate number of alternatives in case someone is unavailable on Election Day.

Jefferson County needs about 240 poll workers on Election Day, and Adam said recruitment efforts are underway.

Jefferson County officials, along with those in Desha and Little River counties, have turned some focus on recruiting at local high schools. Under the 2023 LEARNS Act , graduating students are required to have 75 hours of community service , which Election Day work can help fulfill.

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Critical role

Poll workers put in long days on Election Day. They start before sunrise and usually don’t end until well into the evening, checking in voters, monitoring the process and ensuring any issues voters have are handled.

Arkansas election officials are guaranteed at least minimum wage for their work, though some people may choose to file an affidavit rejecting pay and serve in a volunteer capacity instead.

Get Loud Arkansas , a nonprofit voter advocacy group, is partnering with Power the Poll to recruit enough election officials come November and identified nine additional Arkansas counties with a high need.

“Poll workers are a vital part of ensuring that elections run smoothly and that every vote is counted,” said Kristin Foster, deputy director of Get Loud.

Encouraging more members of the public to become poll workers can also increase representation and accessibility for voters on Election Day, Hanson said.

“It very well might be that a jurisdiction has enough warm bodies to staff a polling place,” she said. “If it’s in a community that has a lot of eligible voters who speak a language other than English at home — if they get 10 new poll workers who are fluent in both [languages], that is an opportunity to place them in those locations to make voting more accessible for voters who speak other languages.”

Each of Arkansas’ 75 counties recruit and train local poll workers, and the process in which officials prepare for upcoming elections varies. The prep is largely left up to county officials, and the State Board of Election Commissioners does not track how many poll workers are logged in each jurisdiction.

Board Director Chris Madison said it’s typical for counties with smaller populations to struggle with finding enough poll workers, though there are procedures in place if Election Day comes and a location is short staffed.

“You could not do the election without them,” Madison said of poll workers.

Every polling place needs at least four workers, though some counties will assign additional workers to more populated locations. Larger counties with more polling places often start planning earlier because of the volume of workers needed.

Heightened political concerns

It takes nearly 1,000 election officials to ensure Election Day runs smoothly at Pulaski County’s 92 polling places.

Amanda Dickens, Pulaski County’s election coordinator, said she isn’t too concerned about having enough people to work the polls in November because there is a pretty hefty pool of former workers to choose from, some who have been doing it for more than a decade.

Dickens said the county election commission has received about 400 applications for poll workers this year, and they will be saved as alternates for experienced folks who are unavailable on Election Day.

Wanted: Poll workers. Must love democracy.

Training for Pulaski County poll workers starts as early as mid-September, and Dickens said it’s important each worker knows the proper procedure and how to solve common issues like name and address changes or questions about identification cards.

While she’s not worried about staffing the polling locations, Dickens said she is concerned about what the environment will be like on Election Day.

“It’s just the temperature of everything right now, and hoping that things stay good here locally and nothing gets out of [hand], kinda crazy,” Dickens said. “…That’s our main concern, is to make sure everybody stays safe.”

Angela Jean Scott, chair of the Johnson County Election Commission, said the upcoming “heated” presidential election may affect the ability to staff the county’s 12 voting centers if people get cold feet.

“It is harder, especially as you have people that are watching the news, and they’re older and they watch news a lot, they get a little more nervous,” Scott said. “Not necessarily about aging out, per se, but just the heated debate around things is a little more difficult.”

Despite these concerns, Scott said she is on track to have about 70 poll workers ready to go on Election Day.

The Johnson County Election Commission is also creating an emergency contingency plan if there are any issues in November. Scott said part of that plan will be preparing members of law enforcement to be positioned if anything goes awry.

“With the landscape as it is this year, the need for responsible, reliable and committed poll workers is more important than ever,” Hanson said.

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