The Johnson County Election Office needs 300 more people to sign up to be election workers for the presidential election.
41 Action News sat down with Ronnie Metsker, the Johnson County Election Office election commissioner, to learn more about what goes into being an election worker and why the county still needs several hundred of them.
We are only a month away from Election Day, and less time away from early voting. Why does Johnson County still need so many election workers?
There's a natural attrition. We line up as many people as we need so that you can lose a few, because you do, before training, and then after training you lose a few more, and then you lose a few more right before Election Day. We prepare and we think ahead, and as long as we are ahead of the game, we will turn out just fine at 4:30 a.m. on Election Day.
How many workers do you need total?
We need to have 2,050 election workers, supervising judges and assistant supervising judges to effectively run all of our polling locations. We might have 3,300 people who are signed up and say they want to work an election. But you lose a few with each step in the process. The goal is to wind up with 2,050 and so we prepare by having more than we need to. We can lose a few in each step and that way we don't get caught short.
What are the requirements to be an election worker?
You need to be a registered voter in Johnson County. That means you are a resident of Johnson County because you could not be a registered voter unless you live here. Second, you need to be able to come to training and receive the training to do the work. And then finally, you need to show up at 4:30 in the morning to help run Election Day.
How will you train the workers you have?
On the 17th of October, we will begin the first of 38 different sessions. A person needs to come maybe twice to training. If they are a supervising judge, there is a special training for them. If they work at an advanced polling site they will need to come for that. We will offer sessions during the day, evening, and over the weekend.
One of the challenges is that election workers work shifts of more than 12 hours on Nov. 8. Why are the shifts so long?
If you have the same group of people who are together as a block the entire day, then you have the least risk of something going haywire.
How many people are expected to vote for president in Johnson County?
This will be considered an epic election. We had the same thing occur in 2008 when we had an open seat presidency - which is no incumbent on the ballot. There's a lot of anticipation over this election just as there was in 2008 and in 2000. Open presidencies always bring out a high number of voters.
- There are 400,000 registered voters in Johnson County
- 80 percent, or 320,000, will vote for president
- About 160,000 of them will vote early via early voting or absentee ballot
- The remaining 160,000 will vote at 209 polling locations across Johnson County on Nov. 8
Why should people consider becoming an election worker?
If you love the USA - the federal, the state and the local elections - it's all one big process. If you love our country, you'll want to be engaged in civic involvement in some way. Yes, we can all vote but some can come and actually help run the process. We appeal to people who can get away for a whole day and do this day for democracy.
Compensation for work:
- Training session: $25
- Election workers: $110 per day
- Supervising judges: $135 per day
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Terra Hall can be reached at terra.hall@kshb.com.
