Thread: California poll workers no longer required to be citizens

I just received my invite to be a poll worker and there is a notice included that says that "lawful permanent residents" may be allowed to serve as "judges" (which are helpers) at the polls in my county. I assume this is a statewide policy. And also you get a bonus of $10 if you are fluent in languages other than English.

As completely corruptible as the polls here in CA are in my experience, this takes it a step further. Nobody who doesn't speak all the languages spoken in the electoral process can tell what is going on. Anything could be going on and probably is, especially if you don't even have to be a citizen to participate. You can't vote if you aren't a citizen, why should you be able to participate in the polling process?

Alex Padilla
California Secretary of State

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Poll Worker Information

Promote Democracy: Serve as a Poll Worker

Before each statewide election, thousands of Californians sign up to help put on the single most important event we hold in a democracy. County elections officials depend on reliable, dedicated teams of poll workers to make every Election Day run smoothly.

Who can be a poll worker?

To serve as a poll worker you must be:

• A registered California voter or legal resident of the United States who would be eligible to vote except for your citizenship status;
  
• An eligible high school student

What does a poll worker do?

• Sets up and closes a polling place
  
• Helps voters understand their rights
  
• Protects ballots and voting equipment

Why be a poll worker?

• Get involved and assist voters
  
• Contribute to your community
  
• Earn extra money (amount varies by county)

How do you apply?

Contact your county elections official for an application and answers to your questions about serving as a poll worker in your county.

Organizations, businesses and government agencies can spread the word about becoming a poll worker by posting, emailing or handing out the Secretary of State's poll worker recruitment flyer.

High School Poll Workers

California Elections Code section 12302 allows eligible high school students to serve as poll workers on Election Day. Student poll workers learn firsthand how elections are run, and provide much needed support at polling place locations. They end their day with a better understanding of the importance of voting and the vital role poll workers play in making our elections run smoothly.

County elections officials may assign up to five high school students to serve as poll workers in each election precinct. Students work under the direct supervision of appointed adult poll workers.

What does it take to be a high school poll worker?

To serve as a high school poll worker, a student must:

• Be a United States citizen
  
• Be at least 16 years old on Election Day
  
• Attend a public or private high school
  
• Have at least a 2.5 grade point average
  
• Get permission from your parents and school
  
• Attend a training session

In addition to learning firsthand how elections are run, student poll workers can be paid a stipend that generally ranges between $65 and $150, depending on the county.

For more information about becoming a high school poll worker, please contact your county elections official.

To encourage high school students to serve as poll workers, the Secretary of State invites students, teachers, school activities directors and others to post, email or hand out the High School Poll Worker recruitment flyer.

State Employees

Government Code section 19844.7, allows state employees to take time off, without loss of pay, to serve as poll workers on Election Day.
Regulations:

• Employee shall be eligible for both regular state compensation and the fee paid by the Registrar of Voters for serving as a poll worker.
  
• Eligibility of a state employee to serve at the polls is subject to approval by the employee's manager or supervisor.
  
• Employee seeking release time to work at the polls shall provide sufficient notice to allow the department to maintain adequate coverage and meet operational needs.
  
• Verification of service as a poll worker on Election Day may be required by the appointing authority by requiring the employee to provide written verification of service from the Registrar of Voters, including the name of the employee serving and the date of the election.

View a list of state agencies in your county.

For more information, please contact your county elections official.

Poll Worker Training Standards

Elections Code section 12309.5, requires the Secretary of State to adopt uniform poll worker training standards. These 2010 revised standards reflect lessons learned and changes in state law that have taken effect since the original standards were published in 2006.

2016 Poll Worker Training Standards
Historical information on Poll Worker Training

http://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/poll-worker-information/

This is unbelievable!!! Does California not have enough US citizens left in their state to man their voting stations??!!

There has been a nationwide shortage of poll workers for many years.

A Poll-Worker Shortage Plagues Elections, Even After 2000 Drama ...

www.wsj.com/articles/SB1022117688479078120The Wall Street Journal

... and worsening, shortage of the more than 1.2 million poll workers needed at precincts nationwide. The problem is exacerbated by post-2000 election changes ...

A Poll-Worker Shortage Plagues Elections, Even After 2000 Drama

By STEPHENIE STEITZER Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal

Updated May 23, 2002 12:01 a.m. ET

California's March primary election was "one of the worst-run in Los Angeles County history," says Conny McCormack. She should know. As the county's registrar-recorder, Ms. McCormack runs elections there.

But she is hardly alone on Election Day, and therein lies one of the biggest problems plaguing America's most basic exercise of democracy: A chronic, and worsening, shortage of the more than 1.2 million poll workers needed at precincts nationwide to help guide voters through elections.

On March 5 in Los Angeles, 121 polling places opened late and 236 volunteers didn't show up. One forgot it was Election Day, then refused to report to her precinct with essential ballot materials. Another insisted Election Day was the following day, and a sheriff had to go to her home to retrieve ballots. Another volunteer was called to work as a substitute teacher, and left ballots locked at his house.

Ms. McCormack, one of the country's most respected election officials, sounds resigned -- even sympathetic. "What would motivate anyone to spend their day in a cold garage with abusive voters and confusing laws?" she asks. "Thank God we have anybody to do it."

Election officials have been railing for years about what they see as a crisis in the availability and competence of poll workers. At their conventions, they long have swapped horror stories of inept or no-show poll workers; there is the one about the primary-election volunteer who mistakenly gave a Republican voter a blue Democratic ballot and then told him, "It's a democratic country, you can vote on a Democratic ballot."

Voting-Rights Suit to Focus on Language Issues, Voting Lists


The problem was evident in Florida's botched 2000 presidential election as well, though machines and poor ballot designs stole most of the nation's attention. But with baby boomers and younger people failing to replenish the typically older ranks of poll workers, officials have increasing cause for concern. Moreover, they fear the problem will be exacerbated by post-Florida election changes across the country, with numerous cities and counties in at least 10 states introducing new machines and procedures that will need to be explained to countless voters in many of the nation's 152,000 polling places.

But the Florida experience also has prodded a number of locales to seek creative ways to solve the poll-worker problem. Among the new ideas: recruiting high-school students and people with disabilities to staff the polling places, and drafting voters who are in line when a precinct opens. Local election officials, taking advantage of the rare post-Florida reform movement in some statehouses, have won funds or approval to increase poll workers' pay, remove partisan limitations on who can volunteer and allow even students who aren't of voting age to volunteer. Ten states have passed such laws in the past two years.

Meanwhile, the House and Senate each passed broad election-overhaul measures, and their ultimate compromise is expected to include subsidies to the states for covering expenses such as poll-worker incentives and training.

Help (Desperately) Wanted

...for a job that has long hours, low pay and lasts only a day: Election Day. States and local governments chronically face crises enlisting volunteers to help at polling places. Since Florida's 2000 election chaos, many are innovating to boost recruitment.

Florida: Approved $6 million for county programs to recruit and train poll workers and educate voters.

Indiana: Allowed 16- to 18-year-olds to work.

Maryland: Authorized local election boards to use students as poll workers, and raised poll workers' pay in two counties.

Mississippi: Authorized students as poll workers.

New Jersey: Permitted high-school students to be excused from school, and increased pay for poll workers.

New Mexico: Increased pay to $125 a day, from $7 an hour.

North Carolina: Extended to poll workers the same job-protection accorded jurors, so they can volunteer without threat of job loss.

Pennsylvania: Repealed its prohibition on poll workers sharing duties, so two people can split a day's shift.

South Carolina: Will allow 16- and 17-year-olds to work in polls.

Texas: Stipulated that local authorities must pay poll workers at least minimum wage.

Source: National Conference of State Legislatures


Yet the low pay, long hours and complicated procedures remain hurdles to recruitment. An average workday is 14 to 16 hours, usually starting before 7 a.m. and not ending until after 8 p.m. Average pay is $6 an hour, usually taxable. And in some places, such as Los Angeles County, workers sometimes have to handle ballots in several different languages.

Recruiting in high schools is one of the more popular innovations for replenishing the poll-worker ranks, which long have relied on retirees and unemployed women. Election officials say teens catch on to technology quickly, and pay close attention to details. An added bonus, officials say, is getting more young people involved in voting themselves.

More than 500 Chicago-area teenagers worked as precinct "judges" in the Cook County, Ill., March primaries, and officials were pleased. "The teen judges have been very competent and are very enthusiastic," says Scott Burnham, spokesman for the Cook County clerk's office.

Another remedy is increasing poll workers' pay, though that isn't so simple a solution now that many states' fiscal problems are growing, and memories of Florida's chaos are receding. Raise the pay and more people will step up to bat, says Neil Tiger, a Suffolk County, N.Y., elections

commissioner. His county has increased the compensation to $152 from $120 a day, plus about $40 for time spent in training. Maryland, New Jersey, New Mexico and Texas passed laws in 2001 allowing for pay increases.

Election officials have taken other, smaller steps. In Pennsylvania, for instance, poll workers can split shifts with a spouse or friend. More places are encouraging local private employers to free their workers to volunteer. In Ms. McCormack's Los Angeles County, election officials can enlist city or county workers from other departments to be poll workers for the day. And North Carolina has given poll workers the same job-security protections as jurors get, so they aren't penalized for missing work to perform a civic duty.
But some places have opted for more radical solutions to addressing the shortage of poll workers, such as relying more on mail-in voting, or drafting poll workers much as juries are selected from the pool of local voters.

Washington is among just a few states that allow voters to cast their ballots by mail, without an approved excuse for not voting in person, such as illness or travel. Some officials believe voting by mail, and perhaps someday online, will eliminate the need for polling places and poll workers in the future. "It's certainly the wave of the Washington future," says David Elliott, the state's associate director of elections. But elsewhere, election officials wince at what they see as the potential for voter fraud in this method.

Nebraska has turned to a poll-worker draft. For the 2000 election, Douglas County drafted 1,500 of its 2,500 workers.

Poll workers are excused if they can find a replacement, but employers can't penalize workers answering the call to staff the voting precincts. The draft "would work in some places, but I think it might be more difficult in others," says elections expert Dick Smolka, who publishes a newsletter from his Washington, D.C., home.

Rhode Island, North Carolina and most recently Indiana have begun recruiting people with disabilities to work at the polls.

"People with disabilities are an untapped resource," says Julia Vahn, who is helping to launch the Indiana program.

Nationwide, about 60% of people with disabilities are unemployed, yet many are capable of working.

Among elections officials, accustomed to election-eve panic attacks about whether enough workers will be in place to assist voters the next morning, few think the recent flurry of recruitment initiatives will be a panacea for their poll-worker shortages. "I'm afraid," says Suffolk County's Mr. Tiger, "that this is a problem that will always be with us."

http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB1022117688479078120

They should tell Trump Supporters, Trump Supporters will show up to work the polling stations.

I mean, this is the first I've heard of it. And I try to stay informed. Like I've said many times, ALIPAC is the best source of real news important to Americans.

Hunterdon has 'critical' shortage for $200/day, twice yearly job | NJ.com

www.nj.com/.../hunterdon_has_critical_shortage_for_200day_job_twi.html

NJ.co
Apr 15, 2015 - Normally about five Hunterdon County poll workers decide in late winter that they no longer want their two-day-a-year job, which nets $400.

Supervisors pass Election Day pay raises because of poll worker shortage

March 1, 2016
Updated 11:11 p.m.

EW SLIDESHOW

Orange County has given raises to its Election Day poll workers in an effort to attract more people to monitor voting locations.BRUCE CHAMBERS, REGISTER FILE PHOTO

By JORDAN GRAHAM / STAFF WRITER

Orange County has given raises to its Election Day poll workers in an effort to attract more people to monitor voting locations during primary elections and stem employee shortages in the lead-up to those dates.

The Orange County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday for the change, which will increase total compensation for poll inspectors to $160 and poll clerks to $130 in advance of the June 7 primary election. Both positions are staffed with volunteers, who must attend three hours of training and commit to working 16 hours on Election Day.

“Everyday leading up to a primary election we are on the margin of what we need,” Orange County Registrar of Voters Neal Kelley wrote in an email.

“That makes it very difficult to meet the goals.”

The county needs over 7,000 people to work at its 1,109 polling places.

Kelley said many of the county’s poll workers are senior citizens living on retirement income and that extra income could motivate more to volunteer.

Orange County’s poll worker pay bump makes its compensation comparable to election volunteers from surrounding counties, according to county staff.

Sign up to volunteer on Election Day and view poll-worker requirements at ocvote.com/volunteer.

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/e...ll-county.html

Trump Supporters!! Sign up and work the polls. We should not have non-citizens working our elections. This is completely unacceptable.

A federal appeals court has blocked Kansas, Georgia and Alabama from requiring residents to prove they are U.S. citizens when registering to vote using a national form.

Appeals Court Blocks Proof-of-Citizenship Voting Requirement