The Cumberland County Board of Elections says it wants to have 1,000 poll workers for November. But based on numbers from the primary, they have fewer than 500 workers on standby.
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"A lot of our workers are retiring," says Mitzie Roberts, the administrative coordinator for the Cumberland County Board of Elections. "They've been doing this for 20 to 30 years and they are, for lack of a better term, aging out...Finding people who are civic-minded enough to do this and do a 16-hour day a couple of times a year. It has just been very difficult."
Roberts said the board would ideally have 10 people working at each of its 77 precincts, but some of those locations currently have less than five. Their main concern is frustrating voters.
If lines move too slowly because there is less help, Roberts said voters could get discouraged and leave their precincts without casting their ballot.
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Board of Elections authorities say their polling sites got through the primary despite being understaffed. But that's because of another major voting issue.
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"Voter turnout was not as high as anticipated. So those precincts that were incredibly shorthanded, while they did have a stressful day and had to take a break on the fly, they were not as inundated as we had feared. So we lucked out there. We may not be so lucky in November," Roberts said.
Officials encourage people to sign up. Poll workers get paid despite being volunteers and are trained. They also mentioned it's an opportunity for young people to get involved in the community.
"Once the festivals start back up in the community, then we'll get back out into the community and try to recruit and try to get people registered at the same time, make sure their information is updated," said Angie Amaro, the director, Cumberland County Board of Elections.