Officials In Need Of Young People To Work Polls This November
In case you've been living under a rock and haven't heard yet, there's a pretty big election coming up in November. The turnout for this year's election is expected to be historic even though the country is in the midst of a pandemic. There are always workers volunteering at the polls and you may have noticed, they're usually a lot older. Now, with just a few months until the November election, many poll workers are having to make the difficult decision of deciding what they need to prioritize- their health or helping for the election.
According to NPR, most poll workers are over the age of 60, which means they're right in the danger zone if they were to catch the novel coronavirus. Many companies are now helping the effort to find younger poll workers for this year's election. A new initiative called Power the Polls is working to help find new, younger poll workers for the election. There are 250,000 poll workers needed and there are less than 50 days to find these new recruits to train them. Power the Polls works with major companies like Comedy Central, Patagonia, MTV, Levi Strauss, Uber, United Way, the YMCA, Big Brothers and Big Sisters, and more. Even with all the help, it will still be difficult to find new workers for the polls, according to Bob Brandon the President of the Fair Elections Center. Brandon told NPR workdays at the polls are usually a stressful 12 hours long with little pay. On top of the problems, add in our current health crisis and most people aren't jumping up and down to work. But if there are fewer workers helping out this year, we could see longer lines and wait times. This could also mean more exposure to potentially contracting COVID while voting.
Still, there are some young people who are fortunate enough to be in good health and willing to work the polls this election. Many older election workers are hoping that come this November, we will see a surge of young people greeting you at the polls when you cast your ballot. If you would like to be one of those workers, you can apply at the Power the Polls website.