Poynter: Poll workers are short-staffed, under attack — and quietly defending democracy

There’s no doubt about it: For election officials across the country, recruiting poll workers is more challenging than ever.

COVID-19 made people with health worries want to stay home. Rampant misinformation about election fraud spurred vitriol and even death threats against election workers. Long hours and paltry pay for a seasonal job have never been that enticing.

Election officials are struggling to recruit workers, but people who are taking the jobs — some for the first time — say they’re doing so out of a commitment to their country and to democracy itself.

PolitiFact interviewed multiple poll workers nationwide and found they were undeterred by threats or falsehoods. Some poll workers are inspired to do this work by new laws that make it harder to vote, or by the way some politicians refuse to certify elections or spread falsehoods about voting. …

When the pandemic prompted many poll workers to quit in the spring of 2020, the shortage shined a spotlight on a problem that existed for decades.

“What happened with COVID was a longstanding problem coming home to roost,” said Sylvia Albert, director of voting and elections for Common Cause. Amid a pandemic, “the vast majority of our election workers couldn’t do the job, because it was not safe for them.”