PRESCOTT - A pilot program is underway at the Yavapai County Elections Department to have county employees swap a workday at their jobs for a day as an election helper during the primary and general elections.
Called election precinct troubleshooters, the employees would staff polling locations, run errands, check voter identification and do any number of tasks to ensure smooth voting at polling places countywide.
"The employees are asked to volunteer for the program, but they are not volunteers," Elections Director Lynn Constabile said. "They are paid for their regular workday, but they will be working for us for their shift instead of at their regular job."
With the memory still fresh of problems during this past November's election, Constabile and County Recorder Ana Wayman-Trujillo hope that enough employees volunteer to alleviate problems during the Sept. 2 primary and Nov. 4 general elections.
"We are working with the county human resources staff to ensure there is no overtime incurred because of the program," Wayman-Trujillo told the Board of Supervisors July 7 before they approved the program. "The employees that volunteer for the eight-hour shift will receive specific training on problem areas that we have identified."
Supervisors must approve the employee's work-swap before Constabile could accept them. Training includes how to use touch-screen voting machines.
"We have 95 polling places and need to staff them for two eight-hour shifts. It takes a lot of people to do an election," Constabile said. "The poll workers cannot leave the polling places by state law, but the workers we are training will be able to leave for whatever reason.
"They will know how to keep lines short and what to do if there is a bottleneck somewhere. We can move them to another polling location and they will be able to do just about anything we need during voting."
Constabile said she needs about two employees per polling place, or about 190 employees to sign up for the program. So far, three employees have enrolled.
"This program is also open to any business employers that want to participate," Constabile said. "We would love to have local businesses get involved."
Employers wanting more information about the election pilot program can call Constabile at 771-3250.
Employees who apply for the work-swap program must be registered voters.
"The idea is to have backup workers at polling places to make sure we don't have bottlenecks and that everything runs smooth on voting day," she said.
Contact the reporter at
bcolbert@prescottaz.com
Reader Comments
Posted: Thursday, July 17, 2008
Article comment by:
BenjDover67
Sounds like the Stormtroopers assisting the German voters in 1933 Hitler election. Some county departments are suspect of wrong doing in a lot of folks minds(what ever happened to the Hambrick/Townsend investigation?) I don't think the employees should be allowed anywhere near the process in an official capacity it could lead to corruption with the political crew we got in some offices.
Ben Dover
Posted: Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Article comment by:
Grundo67
I certainly don't think this is a good idea in fact it stinks to high heavens.I would hate to see the "error makers" of Hambrick's office "assisting" the election process.
Grundo
Posted: Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Article comment by:
edna moglewer
The change of policy that would allow government employees to operate/participate in the polling places concerns me. Volunteer citizen vote control with recognizable neighbor presence has always been the practice. Seems we'd better check with legal sources to see if the new recommended practice would hold up in law.
