Posted on 10/31/2004 4:56:43 PM PST by 4kevin
A shortage of at least 500,000 poll workers nationwide means many voters could face long lines, cranky volunteers, polling places that don't open or close on schedule and the chance that results won't be known until long after the polls are closed.
Roughly 1.4 million people have been trained to serve as poll workers on Tuesday, about the same as four years ago, according to the U.S. Election Assistance Commission. But nearly 2 million will be needed to deal with expected heavy turnout, huge numbers of first-time voters and unfamiliar touch-screen machines in hundreds of counties.
Desperate for workers, the Election Assistance Commission urged businesses and federal agencies to give volunteers the day off with pay to staff the polls. But as the last deadline for training new workers passed Friday, critical shortages remained in many states.
"If the criminal justice system didn't have access to jurors, the criminal justice system wouldn't exist. Poll workers are just as important as jurors," said DeForest Soaries Jr., chairman of the EAC and former New Jersey secretary of state.
The shortage is acute in urban areas where workers should be able to speak multiple languages. Soaries is most worried about New York City, Washington, St. Louis, Chicago and Los Angeles.
Election officials also are struggling to motivate volunteers: For every three poll workers trained, only two show up on election day.
Our local village clerk told us we had to sign up for a 12-hour shift or nothing at all. Tough to do with small children. Sometimes I truly believe they don't want the help.
Doesn't look like this issue really matters for the pres. race. The areas involved are all heavily demorat infested anyway. It just somehow figures that that is where they can't get enough help to run a fair democratic process.
Sounds like the village clerk doesn't want any witnesses.
Give me a break. I've lived in big cities and small towns, and long lines are typical at certain times of the day. If you vote at 10:00 am or 2:00pm you won't wait as long as the usual "rush hours." It's nothing new. I think they're making a big deal out of it.
I volunteered weeks ago. I was told "we'll call you". I hadn't heard anything so I figured they didn't need me. I got a call tonight. Maybe it goes both ways.
The heavily infested Democrat areas, as you put it, are where we need to be, to keep the dead and unregistered and non-existent from voting. The Dem's tend to do their "voting" at the end of the night, when the counts start to be known, and if it looks like the President is close to re-election, that's when the funny business starts.
FReepers around the Country who know this are already very actie in the swing states. Please, if you live near one of these areas, consider volunteering. We need as many honest people in the polling places as we can get, especially heavily Democrat areas.
Just a thought.
Well....that is the PROBLEM....we could solve it....YOU only GET to vote if YOU CAN READ and UNDERSTAND the ENGLISH ballot......God Help America!
The election will be called within thirty minutes of the polls closing in California.
One party or the other will have a substantially better turnout. Rove says it is the GOP.
The polls can indicate opinions, but in this kind of election they cannot predict turnout.
My point was that the cities they mention are all in states that are expected Kerry states.
Here in CA they put out an ad for poll workers, at first glance, I thought it was a joke ad, whoever put the ad did a poor job, imo.
To clarify, not a joke ad, but it reminded me of those cheap ads you see at 2 am in the morning.
The got dots ad is also pretty lame.
It's odd - our village votes about 70% Republican.
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