In what already has proven to be a busy election year, the fast approaching general election on Nov. 5 has township clerks prepping for the big day.
Along with following rules and procedures to ensure a smooth election day, people are needed to work the precincts. While some townships have loyal election workers to call on that come back again and again, others have a difficult time finding the essential help.
In Leelanau Township, clerk Jessica Wilson has luckily found enough workers just in time to assist in the upcoming election, however, past elections have been a struggle to get enough people to assist in the process. Wilson has been serving as the clerk since January of 2022, and in recent months, has been pleading for more help with elections from the public at township board meetings.
Wilson said this is the first year since she’s come into office that they’ll be able to do a split shift during an election with the roughly 22 workers she has registered to help. It’s the most workers she’s had signed up to participate in an election, she added, explaining that they’ll likely have 10 people working in the morning, nine anticipated for the evening shift, and four people on the absentee counting board.
“It makes a huge difference. There’s so many steps at the end of the night, and if you have six people who have worked for 20 hours straight, it’s a huge problem. No one can function very well after being up for that long and dealing with the high stress of what elections bring, ” Wilson said. “It (having enough election workers) affects everything. The flow of the day, how efficiently and quickly we can get people in and out of the precinct, and just being able to let someone go to the bathroom without worrying about how many people we still have out on the floor… If people do not commit to it then it does not get done and then it’s left solely to the clerk. It’s important that people care about it, but it’s also important that they care enough to do something.”
In recent years, election workers around the country have been faced with increasing violent threats and harassment. One of the latest high profile cases to date concerning people accusing election workers of false accusations just came to a close at the end of last year. In December 2023, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani was ordered to pay by a federal jury roughly $150 million to former Georgia election workers, Ruby Freeman and Wandrea “Shaye” Moss, for defamation of their character and citing false accusations against them of election fraud on election day in 2020.
Wilson said while she thinks peoples’ reasons for not applying to work in an election varies, the pressure to serve as a worker during a heated time is a lot to handle, along with other duties that go with serving in the position.
“We also can’t have people telling other people or voters their opinion when they come. We’re there for our job… but we have to be neutral,” Wilson said.
The fact that some people may not know that election workers are paid jobs, Wilson said, is another potential reason for the lack of help. Another big part of it, she explained, is the mandatory training, which is more of a commitment than just showing up on election day to work.
“People may think it may just be an easy thing you show up to, and then once they do start going through the training, they realize it’s a much bigger thing,” she added. “There’s training and you get paid for the time you trained, mileage is reimbursed through our township. Every township is different and some townships don’t do mileage, but that’s what we do.”
Leelanau County Clerk Michelle Crocker said she’s trained more than enough workers to manage early voting which starts on Oct. 26, but she is aware that there are state-wide shortages. Some workers stop serving for many reasons, she said, whether it’s because it’s a commitment to a long day or certain places being more tense than others. Most of the precincts in Leelanau County might have one or two spots to fill, but she said they usually have enough people to work during elections.
“I’ve always encouraged people if they want to work and they’re not getting a response, they can contact us, I might be able to find a polling place or precinct for them to work in the county,” Crocker said.
Just south in the county, Glen Arbor Township Clerk Pam Laureto, who has served in her position since April of 2019, said they have not experienced a shortage of election workers during her time there. In fact, many of the election workers for the township are consistent and returnees from previous elections.
Come November, Laureto said they expect to have six workers per shift, as well as four serving on the absentee voter (AV) counting board and additional people serving on their two receiving boards.
“I’ve had some turnover, but we’ve been pretty consistent,” Laureto said. “I’ve got a lot of good workers and I like to train a couple extra people because sometimes someone might not be available and someone else will. So I have a supply of folks that are available to call.”
TRAINING REQUIREMENTS There’s a list of qualifications to be an election inspector (poll worker) on the state’s website, but some of those requirements include being at least 16 years of age and a Michigan resident, a registered voter in the state if 18 years of age, and you must not have a felony or election crime conviction. It’s also noted that you must not be an election challenger, a candidate, a member of a candidate’s immediate family, or a member of the local board of canvassers, among other requirements.
Due to the size of the county, training for election inspectors is completed at the government center in Suttons Bay and will be held later this month. Crocker and staff will help trainees to go over things like how to open and close the precincts, how to process voters through the electronic poll book, and how to handle if a voter has a problem with their ballot.
“We go over all the checks and balances to make sure all the i’s are dotted and t’s are crossed to have a successful election day… What we always emphasize is to be calm and patient with the voters and we also hope that the voters are calm and patient with them (election workers),” Crocker said. “We learn how to balance out the precinct at the end of the night, shut down the machines, make sure everything is secured and sealed appropriately, what’s going to come to the board of canvassers… So we go through every step of everything that could happen.”
Registered Michigan voters will also be able to cast their ballots early and in person this year too. The early voting site at the government center will be open nine days prior to election day. Residents of City of Traverse City, precinct 4 (Leelanau County), will have to go to the government center in Traverse City for their early voting site.
“You need to have enough hands to make this a smooth process so that everyone remains calm. And if you don’t have enough people and you’ve got a lineup, in general, people are in a hurry, and we can’t rush this process,” Crocker said. “We need to make sure that we process every voter and have everything that we need appropriately to give them the best experience we can. If we don’t have enough people working everyones just going to get frustrated, so that’s why we want to see more people there.”
For more information about what the election inspector job entails and the application process, those interested can contact their local clerks or go online at www.michigan.gov.
“We also can’t have people telling other people or voters their opinion when they come. We’re there for our job… but we have to be neutral,” Leelanau Township Clerk Jessica Wilson
