Jane Slusser, the program director of Power to Polls, joins Cheddar Politics to discuss how her organization is working to recruit poll workers for the November general election amid a nationwide shortage. Slusser also talks about the importance of poll workers within our democratic system, what the root causes of the shortage may be, and her organization's efforts that have signed up 50,000 new poll workers this year. 

Cheddar Politics

Non-Profit Takes on Poll Worker Shortage

welcome back friends with cheddar politics, a baker machado in new york after a pandemic and one of the most challenging elections for election officials in decades. America now experiencing a drastic shortage of poll workers, but one organization trying to do something about that critical shortage is joining us now is jane Slusser, the program Director for Power to the polls, jane. Good to have you here. Thanks so much for joining us. So I want to start out with why this shortage is such a big deal. How important our poll workers really to our democratic system here. Well, they really are the fundamental workers in our democracy. So having poll workers um makes the difference between whether or not folks are able to have easy access for voting. Um Poll workers are required to keep as many polling locations open as possible. They are required to make sure that we don't have long lines at the polls. Um we saw some videos out of Kansas where they had record turnout last month and there was one video where they had just a huge long line at this school and the poll workers were trying to get through to everybody and they said we need more people here. If we had more people here, these voters could be moving through more easily. So if we don't have poll workers, folks don't have easy access to get to the polls. Um and they don't have the bill, they get stuck waiting in line. So we want to make sure we have a Absolutes and we know one just as you mentioned how important they are to our democracy. But we also knew during the 2020 election as well, the threats that were being thrown at them all the sort of harassment that they were enduring during the election as well. Made that job so incredibly difficult. So let's talk about how your recruiting these people, what sort of the policy and the goal here in terms of how you're getting these people to work with you guys. Yeah, so basically, um what we're doing is trying to raise as much awareness as possible that this is something that we need folks to step up and do in 2020 a lot. We originally set out to recruit 250,000 folks because of the huge gaps that we saw based on sort of older generation of poll workers not feeling comfortable going into polling locations because of Covid. Um so people understood why there was a shortage that year and we set out to recruit 205 50,000. We had over 700,000 folks sign up with us. So we know that when people are aware of this problem, they are willing to step up and step into these roles um this year, people are just a little less, it's a little less obvious. People are like Covid's, you know, in a different point in time, don't we have all these poll workers. Um so that's like one of our biggest issues is just making sure folks are aware that this is something that they can step up and do and then once they do it, we just hear people over, well, only excited about the experience that they had ready to go back and do it again, but they need to know that it's something that they can step up to do. And also how do you find your local poll worker application? It's not very easy. And so that's what our website is here to help people with. I love that you're doing this and you're getting a lot of celebrity star power behind you guys as well. You've gotten Former President Barack Obama, Trevor Noah Alicia Keys as well. How are you sort of able to get them to add their voice to this? Yeah, well we have had really great response from folks who are trying to highlight this um in 2020. Actually, Trevor Noah started showing this on the daily show every single evening and we just started having thousands of sign ups every single day based on based on that. Um So I think this is something where celebrities understand they can have a really great voice in raising awareness around this and we're so thankful to all of them for utilizing their platforms to make all their followers understand this is something that we need, this is something that you can step up and do. It is fun. Um It is an exciting experience. It's a great way to get involved in our democracy. Um and so we've just been really, really pleased with outpouring of support from celebrities and elected officials, nonprofit groups. You know, once folks sort of here that this is an issue, they think, How can I help? Let's make sure we get the word out. Okay, so with just a little bit over 70 days into the midterms, how are we in terms of poll workers, do we have enough poll workers to help manage what is likely going to be one of the biggest elections in terms of turnout possibly. I mean, already some prognosticators are saying that this is going to be almost as high as 2020 turnout here. So do we have enough poll workers already ready to go here? We we do not. Um so that's why we're still trying to recruit as many people as possible. We have recruited this year alone. 50,000 folks, which is amazing. We're also reactivating those other people, but we are hearing from administrators across the country that they need more applications. They need more poll workers to express interest. Um the election is, you know, 75 days away. Um but we election administrators have a much shorter timeline to make decisions about how many poll locations are they going to be able to open? Do they have enough staff for those and if they don't have those applications in, they have to start making really difficult decisions about access to polling locations, which might mean the difference of your polling location is five minutes from you or now it's 15 minutes from you and it's a difficult commute for you to get to on your way to work. So administrators have earlier deadline to get applications in, which is why we're trying to push folks get those applications in. If you were thinking about being a poll worker, sign up with us on power, the polls um and also administrators are gonna start training you up. So they start training folks as early as september. So if you want to be a poll worker, you don't want to miss out on all of that valuable training, especially if it's your first time jane are you seeing younger people take an interest in becoming a poll worker? Because you know, look throughout my entire voting life, I've always seen retired individuals being the people working as poll workers. Are you seeing younger people not taking interest in this? Well, we are very focused on inspiring young folks and we are very excited to see that they are interested in stepping up. We hear stories from people who say my mom has been a poll worker or my grandparents for poll workers and I know that my grandma can't do it anymore. So now I'm inspired to sign up. Um a lot of student groups are very interested um and push This out there. Um so we have seen a lot of young people interested, which we love because the people who are sort of retiring out of being poll workers now, they started when they were young, they've been doing it for 30 to 40 years. Um and they've sort of put in their service, it's their chance to sort of relax a little bit and pass it on to the next generation. So we want to get folks who, this is gonna be your first time being a poll worker, but you're gonna want to do it for 30 to 40 more years. I love that you guys are doing this. Thank you so much for doing this. Jane jane Celester is the program director for Power of the polls. Thank you. And after the break, everyone dr Anthony Fauci retiring at the end of the year. So we're gonna take a look back at his storied career. Next stay with us more cheddar politics on the other side.