FRANKFORT, Ky. – Secretary of State Michael Adams today is putting out an APB for poll workers for the November election.
“Like most Kentuckians, I want things to get back to normal – and that includes our elections. I want more robust in-person voting options than we had in June, but that is only possible if Kentuckians step up and volunteer to be poll workers.”
A typical Kentucky election entails approximately 3,700 voting locations and 15,000 poll workers. The primary reason June’s primary offered so few voting locations is that so few Kentuckians volunteered to be poll workers. By law, each precinct voting location must have four poll workers, evenly split between registered Democrats and Republicans.
“Last year, before I was sworn in as Kentucky’s chief elections official, I testified to the General Assembly that we have a poll worker crisis – and that was before COVID-19,” Adams added. “We must find new poll workers, particularly younger people who are less at risk of harm from the coronavirus than the disproportionately elderly volunteers we usually have.”
“If you’re a Republican who doesn’t want a vote-by-mail election in November, you need to step up and be a poll worker. If you’re a Democrat concerned about unintentional voter suppression caused by a paucity of voting locations, you need to step up and be a poll worker.”
Adams encourages all Kentucky voters to contact their local Democratic or Republican committees, or their county clerk, to volunteer. In his bipartisan agreement with Governor Andy Beshear for the June primary, Independent voters were permitted to serve as poll workers, and Adams hopes to continue that in the fall, and permanently, with legislation next year.