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Some Ohio counties have met poll worker goals, with Election Day 5 weeks out, LaRose says

COLUMBUS — Clark County is among the nine counties that have reached their goal to sign up a minimum number of poll workers for Election Day, according to Ohio’s Poll Worker Tracker, and more than half of the state’s counties have less than 100 more poll workers to sign up before their goal is met.

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As of Wednesday, 46,125 Ohioans have signed up to serve as a poll worker on Nov. 3. This includes 19,938 Democratic poll workers, 18,282 Republicans.

Clark County has reached its goal to sign up 456 committed poll workers, according to the latest tracker updated Wednesday.

Auglaize (43), Champaign (57) and Mercer (44) are among the counties that have less than 100 more poll workers to sign up, with five weeks remaining before Election Day, before their goal is met.

The breakdown can be seen on Ohio’s first-ever Poll Worker Tracker. The tracker continues to give Ohioans, counties and partner organizations clear goals for poll worker recruitment for the November election.

“We need a whole new generation of Ohioans to step up and accept this important call to duty,” Secretary of State Frank LaRose said Wednesday. “If you’re patriotic about your neighbor’s right to make their voice heard, check out the tracker and find out if your county needs help. We need you!”

LaRose said thousands of Ohioans dedicate themselves each election to sustaining the backbone of democracy — the election process. Poll workers help ensure that elections are fair, he said, and in doing so, maintain past traditions and future hope.

LaRose, to continue providing voters with unprecedented levels of transparency, is providing Ohioans with weekly poll worker updates as reported by the 88 county boards of elections.

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This is the first time such information has been collected from the counties prior to an election.

Notable statewide data:

• Goal for Committed and Trained Poll Workers: 55,588

• Minimum Poll Workers Required: 37,057

• Current Number of Committed Poll Workers: 46,125

• Remaining Number of Poll Workers Needed to Meet Goal: 19,274

Poll worker recruitment efforts include:

  • Give a Day for Democracy: Partnering with businesses to offer employees the day off to be poll workers. In Cincinnati, Western & Southern Financial is allowing employees to work the polls with a paid day off. Other companies statewide are offering the same incentive, LaRose said.
  • Lawyers for Liberty: Attorneys will receive required continuing legal education credits for being a poll worker this year
  • The Accountancy Board of Ohio (ABO) will now allow Ohio Certified Public Accountants (CPAs) to obtain required Continuing Public Education (CPE) general credits for CPAs serving as poll workers in 2020
  • The Ohio Real Estate Commission announced it will award three hours of core law continuing education credit to active and inactive Ohio Real Estate licensees who serve as a poll worker on Election Day.
  • Styling for Democracy. NOW VOTE!: A partnership with barbershops and salons, and the schools that feed into them to recruit more poll workers
  • Second Call to Duty: This initiative is asking veterans who took an oath to defend their country to defend democracy on Nov. 3.
  • Work the Day, Share Your Pay: Poll workers can donate their earnings to a nonprofit or charity of their choice.
  • Youth at the Booth: In Ohio, 17-year-old high school seniors can serve as poll workers.
  • The Ohio State University: All university employees may receive a paid day off, without using vacation time, to be a poll worker this fall

Recruitment materials and the form to sign up to serve as a poll worker can be found at VoteOhio.gov/DefendDemocracy.

Visit PollWorkerTracker.OhioSoS.gov, for a breakdown of poll worker data:

  • The minimum number of poll workers required to run an election in the respective county, by total and by political party
  • The goal number of poll worker commitments counties should target to compensate for cancellations
  • The remaining number of poll workers needed for each county to reach its goal

In accordance with state law, the board of elections, by a majority vote, appoints four electors for each precinct who are residents of the county in which the precinct is located to serve as poll workers.

Not more than one-half of the total number of poll workers assigned to a precinct may be members of the same political party. Ohioans who are neither a Republican or Democrat may also serve as poll workers. Those individuals appear in the poll worker tracker in the “other” category.


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