Concerns Rise Over Attacks on Election Officials
Low Pay Compared to High Work Intensity
Ultimately, Even High School Students Take on the Job
In the United States, which is preparing for the presidential election next month, there are reports of a labor shortage, with many polling stations still struggling to find staff responsible for election duties.
On the 20th (local time), the Financial Times (FT) reported that the shortage of election management personnel in the U.S. is severe. The U.S. has over 5,000 local election authorities scattered nationwide that manage federal elections such as the presidential election. According to data from the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) related to the 2022 midterm elections, the number of polling stations nationwide reaches 95,000, and about 645,000 people are employed to manage voting. The installation of polling stations and the recruitment and training of election workers and guides fall under the jurisdiction of local election authorities.
The problem is that even with the election about two weeks away, many election authorities have not been able to fill the positions of election workers and guides. Analysts say that the recruitment difficulties faced by election authorities are closely related to the intensified partisan conflicts in the U.S. and the growing distrust in voting. Former President Donald Trump claimed that he lost the 2020 presidential election due to election fraud, which increased concerns about attacks on election officials. In fact, in Detroit at that time, hundreds of Trump supporters gathered at absentee ballot counting sites, demanding a halt to the counting and threatening volunteers.
The U.S. Department of Justice has warned that various threatening situations could occur to election workers in this year’s presidential election as well. Especially in battleground states that will decide the outcome of this year’s election, the safety of election workers appears to be a more prominent issue. States such as Nevada, Arizona, and Wisconsin, which are still recruiting election personnel, are representative battleground states.
Another cause of the recruitment difficulties is that election workers do not receive sufficient compensation relative to the intensity of their labor. In Johnson County, Kansas, more than 1,000 applicants applied to work at polling stations on election day, but many dropped out during the training process. Election authorities analyzed that this was because workers had to endure a grueling 15-hour shift starting at 5 a.m. on election day, yet the pay was only $150 to $200 (approximately 205,000 to 273,000 KRW).
Meanwhile, some local election authorities struggling with labor shortages have taken measures to address the issue. The Bergen County election authority in New Jersey lowered the minimum age for election workers to 16 through a legal amendment and arranged for 350 high school students to work at polling stations on election day.
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