Last month when I signed up for a job to be a poll worker there were positions available for some 400 applicants to serve the needs of all the Election Day voting precincts in Tulsa County. For there to be that great a need for so many is a fairly new phenomenon and one which is not unique to the Tulsa County Election Board. Most other election boards across this state and nation are finding themselves in the same predicament in 2024. Poll worker shortage was not a problem before 2020. Although a global pandemic contributed greatly to a marked increase in absentee voting that year, the current dearth of Election Day poll workers is multifactorial. Chief among the reasons for such a scarcity was the demonization of election board officials and poll clerks by disgruntled political candidates and their spokespersons unhappy with their election results. After soundly losing the vote count, they found it necessary to assuage their loss and blame their failure on lowly poll workers and their superiors by accusing them of complicity in voter and election fraud, none of which was ever proven. Some continue to publicly assert that their failure to win was due to having their election stolen even after the votes were counted and recounted in some cases multiple times. Election workers in heavily contested districts were not only publicly maligned by campaign losers and their minions. Some were openly accused of complicity in election theft, a crime which simply did not exist, then were subsequently intimidated with abusive threats of personal harm to themselves and their family members up to and including death. The abuse heaped on election day poll officials, particularly those in key battleground states, districts and precincts was clearly over the line of any acceptable civil conduct. This ugly and pervasive dynamic has created a tall order for elevating enthusiasm among otherwise interested candidates for voluntarily applying to serve the community at the polls on Election Day. Even here in Tulsa County, where any such accusation of orchestrated election fraud is a rare if ever occurrence, getting all the precincts staffed has become quite difficult. With just over a month until the Super Tuesday primary election scheduled for March 5th, TCEB remains nearly 300 employees short of the needed personnel to staff all its polling precincts to ensure all voters casting ballots can do so with ease and timely access and not be subjected to absurdly long lines at the polls.
Election Poll Workers Under Assault
As stated above, TCEB remains in need of around 300 poll workers to fully staff all 251 established precincts in the county. When fully staffed, each precinct has three poll officials. These consist of a CLERK, a JUDGE and an INSPECTOR. The CLERK works closely with the JUDGE to issue the correct ballot or ballots to the voter. The JUDGE is responsible for finding voters in the precinct registry and checking voter IDs. The INSPECTOR serves as the team leader and is responsible for managing the voting device and transporting election supplies from the Election Board to the poll and back. All fulfill other duties as they may present unique to the location. All are paid according to job at a current rate of $100-$110 per election. All workers must be at their poll location at 6 AM and are required to stay until 7 PM when the polls close or until all duties are completed on Election Day. They are required to stay the entire day, no leaving early or split shifts.
Most readers of this blog are likely aware that a well demonstrated core value of Yours Truly is putting one’s spirit of volunteerism where one’s mouth is. I have indeed stepped up and applied to be an Election Day employee of my home county’s election board. Having just attended a six-hour poll worker training class in the first person I can vouch for all the job descriptions of the above detailed election official positions. In addition, it was made known that all applicants for those available positions that certain requirements come with the job. These include being a registered voter in Tulsa County, having access to a reliable automobile, having the means by which to communicate via email and text messages and most of all being able to work a very long day. All poll workers must arrive at their assigned location no later than 6 AM and are not allowed to leave until all associated job duties are complete after the polls close at 7 PM. This usually results in a 14-hour day, sometimes longer. Stamina and the physical strength to lift thirty pounds are an imperative. The poll worker trainers provided some limited demonstration in operation of the Hart InterCivic voting devices used by TCEB. It was made know to all trainees by the chief facilitator that Oklahoma has one of the most secure election systems in the nation and to date there had been no instances of hacking these machines. Also, technical support of the voting devices is a priority of the election board. When as much information is presented as was in the training class, much of it will not be fully understood until correlated with real life experience. All the same, most of the attendees left that day with an Election Day assignment. In addition to a precinct assignment, I left with the confidence that the means by which the democratic process is exercised will be fair and secure and in compliance with the law.
As it was previous stated, Tulsa County has 251 voting precincts to accommodate over 370,000 registered voters. All precincts must be staffed for all elections from the November general election to all state, county, municipal and school board elections as well as special elections when the need may arise. Trained and available election board poll workers are essential to maintaining the integrity of free and fair elections that ensure the perpetuation of the democratic process within a constitutional republic such as the United States. The truth is that voter fraud and election fraud occur rarely in the larger scheme of the total number of votes cast. Even among the partisan professionals who have gone hunting it over the past several years all agree that the numbers found and prosecuted were nowhere near enough to decide any election. Another tidbit of good news passed in the training session was the number of new poll workers now needed was not nearly what it was four weeks ago. The bad news was that well over 200 new workers were still needed for a smooth voting experience in all Tulsa County precincts on Super Tuesday, March 5th. I will say that I was impressed by all the quiet confidence of all the TCEB officials who are faced with a daunting challenge. If they are able to meet it then we all may rest easy in the knowledge that the most sacred American right, that being our voting right, is safe and secure. At the end of training, I did feel a boosted sense of faith in those who are in charge. If those who seek to taint the process with bogus claims of vote and/or election fraud, all I can say is they had better not take it personally when they get called out to show proof. If there is ever any question as to mechanism or process regarding voting in the State of Oklahoma, let’s just stick to what has been delineated in Title 26 of Oklahoma Statutes, i.e. the law. This is America and Oklahoma voting as it should be and in fact is, a place where everything works and nothing in terms of outcome is certain.
Thank you for reading and please consider stepping up to serve as a poll worker.
Apply to become a TCEB poll worker
