COLUMBUS, Ohio — According to the Ohio Secretary of State's office, there is a lack of poll workers for the upcoming primary election.

What You Need To Know

  • The Secretary of State's office stated there is a need for poll workers across the state in different counties

  • The last day to register to vote in the primary on March 19 is Wednesday

  • Early voting for the March 19th primary starts Thursday

With thousands of Ohioans submitting their votes within the next few weeks, that poll worker help is imperative.

“Simply put, without poll workers, we would not be able to administer elections not only here in Franklin County, but across the state,” said the Franklin County Board of Elections Public Information Officer, Aaron Sellers.

It’s election season for the state of Ohio which means thousands of residents will be casting their ballots, leading up to the primary on March 19th. The Franklin County Board of Elections has 55 full time employees but come election day the amount of poll workers needed is a much larger number.

“On Election Day, we'll have, you know, 5,000 poll workers across our county. I don't know what those numbers. I mean, obviously, the larger counties, they're more poll workers. But, I mean, you know, tens of thousands of poll workers will be used on Election Day in Ohio. So it's obviously vital to us being able to do our job,” said Sellers.

With over 300 polling locations across the county and over 800,000 registered voters, Franklin County is prepared this election season because of its over-recruiting style. 

“We've made available about 4,100 poll workers that we already have. We've probably trained more than half of those folks already. So, we're in a very good spot,” said Sellers.

Unlike Franklin County, a representative from the Delaware County Board of Elections shared with me the need for poll workers in that county is urgent and this also goes for several other across the state. Along with needing the help, the poll workers also need to be bipartisan, which can sometimes be even harder to find depending on the county.

“You know, there are thousands of probably polling locations across the state. So you have to have people to run those things. And one of the other things that's important is there has to be a bipartisan,” said Sellers.

Although poll workers volunteer their time, a lot of people don’t realize they are compensated for their work. To learn more about becoming a poll worker you can visit the website at www.ohiosos.gov.