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BOE calling for precinct workers

T-L Photo/ROBERT A. DEFRANK Belmont County Board of Elections Director Kelly McCabe and Deputy Director Aaron Moore prepare to test a ballot scanner for the upcoming March election. They are putting the call out for precinct workers.

ST. CLAIRSVILLE — Election Day for the primary election is coming up March 17, and Belmont County’s board of elections is looking to shore up personnel.

“We need voting location managers, and we need precinct election officials,” Election Board Director Kelly McCabe said. “The voting location managers is another name for a presiding judge. They’re the ones that pick up the supplies and bring the supplies back election night.”

Belmont County has 70 precincts and must have four workers at each for a total of 280 people for Election Day. McCabe hopes that new workers will continue on to Nov. 5, when the presidential race is set.

“This is a good training for them to get ready for November, because we’ll be a lot busier,” she said. “It’s a good election for them to start. It’ll definitely be a much lighter turnout for them to ease into the process.”

“We had a big turnout the last presidential election.”

She said close to 65 percent of Belmont County’s voters participated in 2016.

McCabe said the board’s staffing numbers are meeting the state standard number, but barely.

“However, that will not last because people get sick. People call off. Things come up. So we need extra workers to be trained, which starts in February,” she said.

This means prospective workers are asked to call as soon as possible.

“Right now, we have people that are not affiliated with any party, and we can use those unaffiliated people in two positions in the precinct, but we have to have one true, registered Democrat, and one true, registered Republican worker in each precinct. We do like to fill them with more than that because if there’s a call off, we have to have them working that day,” she said.

“They need to start calling our office to get scheduled,” she said.

Training is chiefly daytime classes, though there are some night classes available. Classes are three hours each.

“We also have some extra classes for the electronic poll books. That’s a separate training. That’s an hour-and-a-half, two-hour training, but we don’t train all the pole workers for that, because that’s not in every location,” she said.

Duties include working with provisional voters, checking in voters and managing the entire process during the day, from starting up the scanners in the morning, checking identification, and administering the correct ballots.

McCabe said one of the biggest obstacles seems to be a lack of interest.

“I understand people work, more people than before, but we really need people to be interested,” she said. “Some of the poll workers are older and retiring.”

Among the qualities needed is attention to detail.

“We need reliable people,” she said.

McCabe said the board is otherwise prepared, having completed security directives mandated by the state.

For more information, call 740-526-0188.

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