Franklin Co., state still needs primary election poll workers

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – Primary election day is just over two weeks away and many Ohio counties are still working to recruit poll workers.

So far, the Ohio Secretary of State's office said 24 counties have met the minimum number of poll workers needed – eight of those counties are in central Ohio.

Franklin County is inching its way to being one of those counties, but the county board of elections is still looking for workers.

“We’ll train them up until Election Day,” said Aaron Sellers with the Franklin County Board of Elections.

Sellers said the board put out a plea for help on social media last week, which helped bring numbers up.

“4,100 is the number of poll workers that the Secretary of State wants us to recruit and we’re at about 3,800, so we’re closing the gap,” Sellers said.

The Ohio Secretary of State's office is sharing weekly updates on poll worker numbers.

The latest report says Ohio counties are 78.2 percent of the way toward reaching the statewide goal of 35,000 people committed to working the polls May 3.

Franklin County is working to fill in any gaps, Sellers said.

“Certainly, in a perfect world, we’d place everybody in their home precinct, but that obviously, as we get closer and have needs in other areas, we ask them and they will kind of travel,” he said. “We say, ‘Hey, we’ve got these areas that we need somebody. Can you go to these locations?’”

Franklin County Board of Elections has used early voting as a recruitment strategy, which Sellers said will help now and in the future.

“We’re close to 10 percent of people that have come up here have signed up,” he said of recruitment efforts during early voting. “That might not mean they’re going to work this election, but certainly it gets them in our wheelhouse so we can reach out to them for the next election.”

Click here for more information on how to become a poll worker.