County residents who waited until election day to vote encountered some new – and mostly younger – faces when they went to the polls Tuesday.
In spite of fears that too few poll workers would sign up due to COVID-19, the Indian River Supervisor of Elections office was flooded with “10 to 20 times” the usual number of applications this election season, according to Shane Bias, who runs the county’s poll worker program.
Bias estimates that between 600 and 700 people put in for the one-time gig, many of them younger people and many with full-time jobs. That’s in contrast to the army of retired seniors who typically help out at the polls.
“We were inundated by applications and phone calls. It’s been crazy,” said Bias, who was still getting applications as late as last Friday.
Bias hired 270 workers for the general election. They went through the three hours of training and the 14-hour day on election day, all for a stipend that for first-timers breaks out to well below minimum wage.
A good number of those were alternates who went through training but remained on stand-by in case others didn’t show up. In an accelerating pandemic, that was a real risk.
In March, Bias lost about 35 workers in advance of the presidential preference primary, which took place just as the state went into lockdown. He managed to find replacements from his list.
Then in August, Bias lost nearly 100 poll workers who dropped out in the days before the primary, again due to fears of the coronavirus. “I wouldn’t say there was a shortage because I had all the workers I needed, but I didn’t have any extras the way I usually do,” said Bias.
With the September recall election interrupting his precious preparation days for the November general election, Bias might have been in real trouble had it not been for a big boost a few months earlier when celebrities began a social media effort to engage young people in the election.
Trevor Noah of “The Daily Show” was among the first to draw attention to the poll worker shortage. Noah, who has strong appeal among young people 18 to 34, put out a plea on his show and on Twitter back in July. It linked the risk of the coronavirus among people over 60 – the majority of poll workers – and the possibility of fewer poll workers forcing some voting stations to close. “This is your chance to save granny, protect your democracy, and get paid,” he said.
Applications began pouring in in volumes Bias had ever seen before. “Normally I would get 50 to 100, but this time it was like 600 to 700.”
“We have people who are teachers, nurses, even younger kids who call and say ‘we saw ‘The Daily Show’and they said you’re going to need poll workers.’”
Classes typically take three hours for a worker in operations, more for someone acting as a clerk. This year, the rooms used for training were rearranged to put more distance between desks, and sneeze guards were installed for extra measure. At the voting locations, poll workers were required to wear face coverings, though they still faced increased risk because masks were not mandatory for voters.
With luck, the pool of poll workers will one day include again 97-year-old Eleanor Carson, who for years has worked at the polling station at Indian River Estates, the retirement community. Carson dropped out this year after that voting location was moved due to pandemic concerns for its senior residents.
Carson, a retired registered nurse who moved to Vero from Fort Lauderdale in 1999, signed up as a poll worker after her husband died in 2005.
“It was one of the most fun, educational, inspiring things I’ve ever been a part of and it was a wonderful place to make new friends,” she said. Once heavily involved in leadership with the Girl Scouts, the Junior League and the Red Cross, she had “always been curious” about the voting process.
“I just always wanted to see how voting worked. And I just loved it. We were all like family.”
