 Aug. 26, 2005 600 Poll Workers needed to work Election Day
After Sylvia Bushnell retired eight years ago, being a poll worker for King County Elections helped her stay engaged with her community. She found the work so rewarding this year will be her sixth working the polls. "I had to do something with my time other than lunch with the ladies," she laughed. "I have really enjoyed working the polls in my neighborhood for the past several years, greeting my neighbors and making sure their voting experience is a good one." This year, King County is recruiting an additional 600 poll workers to meet new requirements for handling provisional ballots. Under new procedures, there will be one provisional ballot judge at each of 527 polling places whose sole responsibility is to issue and account for provisional ballots. A provisional ballot is issued to any voter whose name is not in the poll book, any absentee voter casting a ballot at the polls for any reason, or a poll voter who does not provide identification. To ensure provisional ballots are counted accurately, King County is implementing new procedures including making them look different from regular poll ballots and preventing them from being accepted by vote tabulation equipment. As the most populous county in the state, King has more than five times the number of polling places than Pierce County, the second most populous. "This is one of the most important civic services our citizens can perform to support our democratic process," said Dean Logan, director of King County Records, Elections and Licensing Services. "It is rewarding work and more important than ever in helping to build public confidence in the integrity of our elections." Poll workers in King County receive $113.93 for a 15 hour Election Day, and are also paid for a three-hour training. Election Day is 6 a.m. until all procedures for closing a polling place are completed, around 9 p.m. People interested in becoming poll workers should call 206-296-1606. |
Updated: Aug. 26, 2005 King County | Elections | News | Services | Comments | Search Links to external sites do not constitute endorsements by King County. |
New standards will require one additional worker at every polling place