MADISON, WI (WTAQ) – As the November 3rd presidential election grows closer, communities across Wisconsin are looking for help with operating their polling places.
During a typical election year, it takes about 30,000 volunteers to make things go smoothly at polling sites across Wisconsin. but things are a bit different than usual this year. Fewer people are planning to actually visit the polls on election day, and there are fewer people willing to volunteer to process those ballots.
“We’re just continuing to encourage folks to volunteer as poll workers,” said Wisconsin Elections Commission Administrator Meagan Wolfe. “It’s a really incredible way to be able to serve your community, to be able to serve your fellow Wisconsinites, and to make sure that we have what we need to run democracy here in our state.”
The closer we get to the election, the more that local municipalities will have a handle on who will be able to serve the community or if they still have needs.
“Some communities have reported to us that they have enough poll workers. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t still contact your clerk. There’s a lot of other communities that may be just outside of your community that could really use the assistance,” Wolfe said. “They had told us that in the last few weeks that it was too soon for them to know for sure, but we’re now asking them to really tighten up those calculations and provide us with any reports of needs…They’re recruiting those poll workers they’re figuring out who’s going to be able to serve and where they still have needs.”
Cities like Appleton have reported that they are all set with election workers and are no longer accepting applications. But even then, Wolfe recommends having a backup plan in the event that somebody isn’t able to show up. WTAQ reached out to Green Bay city officials regarding their current poll worker status, but have not yet received comment.
But that issue doesn’t tend to show up as much in areas with larger populations.
“It’s more rural areas that are seeing it, and a lot are small communities. So of those 1850 municipalities, over 1200 are townships and these are our smallest jurisdictions,” Wolfe explained. “There just, frankly, aren’t a lot of people that live in some of those small townships, right? So the pool of people that are able to serve those communities is smaller…If there is a lift on the residency requirement of poll workers needing to serve their own community, I would say even more so, it’s really important for voters to contact their clerks. Even in those communities that might have enough, because they might be really needed in surrounding communities.”
Wolfe says this year, it seems almost like they’ll be running two elections at polling places on election day. Of the more than 1.3 million absentee ballots already requested, over 614,000 have already been returned.
“We’re already seeing over a third of our anticipated turnouts of the folks that requested an absentee ballot by mail. So you’re running that in-person process but you’re also processing all those absentee ballots,” Wolfe told WTAQ News. “So we’re going to need more volunteers than ever to make sure that we have what we need to run those polling places efficiently.”
Communities with critical and serious needs for assistance will be posted online, starting next week. To sign up to become a poll worker, contact your local clerk’s office or click here for more information.
