Valley Boards of Elections looking for poll workers for upcoming presidential election
Mahoning Valley - The 2024 Presidential Election is fast approaching, so 21 News caught up with the Boards of Elections in all three Mahoning Valley counties to see how preparations are going for the upcoming wave of voters both old and new.
Mahoning County Board of Elections Director Tom McCabe tells 21 News poll worker recruitment has been going great and that the recruitment process was able to start earlier this time around due to a special election in June.
McCabe says the poll workers who worked during that special election have committed to work during the November Presidential Election too, and while the Board is not quite full yet, it is on pace to be full by Election Day.
Meanwhile in Trumbull County, Board of Elections Director Stephanie Penrose tells us recruitment has been going well, but the Board could use a lot more.
Penrose mentioned that the Board is mandated to have 15% over four poll workers per precinct in the case of call offs, but says she'd like to get up to 30% over that.
In Columbiana County, both Democrat and Republican poll worker coordinators told 21 News they are actively making progress on recruitment, but still have a ways to go to have a sufficient amount of poll workers.
However, these coordinators told us they are "not in panic mode" just yet.
In terms of recruiting strategies, each board had a unique method of recruiting poll workers.
In Mahoning County, McCabe told us for the past two years, he's been talking with multiple local groups such as local rotary clubs and the League of Women Voters about the importance of elections and being a poll worker.
McCabe says this has worked well for the Board.
However, Penrose says this method did not work as well for Trumbull County, with its Board of Elections opting to utilize digital means of communication such as Facebook and the Board of Elections' website.
In Columbiana County, the poll worker coordinators told us they also use online posts to recruit poll workers but also rely on word of mouth. Additionally, the Board taps into the early voting market who may not be aware of the need for poll workers.
All three counties reported a spike in new voters and registrations for the upcoming election in November. All three said this is normal for this time of year, but Penrose says this spike has been lower than usual this time around.
Penrose didn't have a definite answer as to why, but mentioned that she had seen less civil groups going around talking to people about registering to vote and the importance of voting.
Mahoning and Columbiana Counties said there was not a significant increase or decrease in this spike this time around and it's about the same as previous presidential elections.
