FRANKLIN COUNTY, Ohio — The Franklin County Board of Elections is gearing up for the Aug. 8 special election. Poll workers are being trained and machines are being tested, all in preparation for the big day in less than a month.
“We are going to recruit, our goal, is 5,000 poll workers for those locations. Once we get them signed up, a lot of them are past poll workers, but we do have some new poll workers joining us throughout the cycle,” said Aaron Sellers, public information officer for the Franklin County Board of Elections.
The Board of Elections is trying new incentives to bring in more workers, including increasing pay by about $30 for training.
Sellers said right now, they have well over 50% of the poll workers necessary.
“We have got a little less than a month to go before the election. We feel we are in a really good position to have the staffing levels needed for Aug. 8,” said Sellers.
The special election is also bringing about other challenges like finding places for voters to vote.
Several polling locations have changed.
“There’s a lot of locations that, for whatever reason, can’t accommodate us. We are in a lot of churches, schools. There [are] things like they may be resurfacing a gym floor,” said Sellers.
Elections don’t come cheap. As for funding, Franklin County plans to spend about $1.6 million. The state legislature has designated $16 million for the state's special election. This is all for an election that typically only sees less than 10% of registered voters.