Western Pa. elections officials say higher pay for poll workers helped to ease staffing crunch

It takes thousands of employees to run an election.

Elections officials across Southwestern Pennsylvania said they continue to gear up and prepare staff needed for the April 23 presidential primary, including the hiring of judges of elections, inspectors and clerks needed to man voting precincts.

Concerns about staffing levels have plagued elections officials in the years since the last presidential balloting in 2020. Officials said increased pay for poll workers and more intensive training programs to prepare staff for Election Day has helped ease some of the staffing worries.

“We’ve not had any concerns,” said Westmoreland County Election Bureau Director Greg McCloskey. “We’re not even down a single judge at this point. Over the last several years, we’ve made it a priority to improve the training of poll workers.”

For years, Westmoreland struggled to staff its 307 voting precincts on Election Day. Eleventh-hour calls for workers on the eve of voting was the norm.

That changed in fall 2021 after the county raised the pay for its more than 1,450 staffers who work just two days a year to log poll books, set up voting machines and ultimately return ballots to the courthouse for tallying.

In early 2021, county poll workers were among the lowest paid in Pennsylvania, with judges earning day rates of $130 and others receiving just $95 to work the precincts for the 13-hour day.

The commissioners, acting as the county’s elections board, approved a more than 80% increase in pay two years ago, raising judge’s salaries to $235 and other staffers to $175 for their day’s work. That now makes Westmoreland County’s poll workers among the highest paid in the state.

McCloskey said the county has a list of about a dozen people ready to step in a fill vacant poll worker jobs if needed.

Other counties have followed suit to increase poll worker pay.

Allegheny County’s nearly 6,700 poll workers who staff more than 1,300 precincts are paid between $150 to $175 as a result of pay hikes approved in 2021.

“Our team is really happy with our numbers as compared to four years ago. Overall, the numbers are looking good,” said Allegheny County spokeswoman Abigail Gardner.

Allegheny County continues to seek poll workers for precincts in Baldwin, Pleasant Hills and in Pittsburgh’s West End and South Side neighborhoods.

Officials hope the emergency calls for poll workers is a thing of the past.

“We’re basically building on success every year, and we now have a stable of people we use,” Gardner said.

Added pay has made a difference in finding workers, said Butler County Elections Director Chantell McCurdy. The county pays its more than 500 Election Day poll workers between $185 to $220.

McCurdy said Butler’s elections division dedicates one staffer to coordinate and administer the county’s poll watcher staff to ensure its 96 precincts are fully staffed on Election Day.

“We have a very dedicated voting base who want to be involved,” McCurdy said. “A lot of our judges have been doing this over many years. They bring their children and grandchildren with them to polls as a legacy, and in some cases, we have three generations of people working. They grow up and see their parent and grandparent do it, so they want to do it.”

Repeated calls to Armstrong County election officials were not returned.

For presidential elections, when voter turnout typically spikes, finding enough workers to man the polls has been a concern, according to Washington County Election Bureau Director Melanie Ostrander. The county pays poll workers between $150 to $175, rates that were increased in the last year.

Ostrander said higher pay and more aggressive advertising for poll workers is expected to help fill out the county’s staffing needs of 900 poll workers. The county expects to have a better idea of how many are still needed for the 180 voting precincts by mid-March.

“We do struggle, but we make do. It works out in the end. We never have enough,” Ostrander said.

Fayette County Director of Elections Marybeth Kuznik said she expects all of the county’s 77 precincts will have poll workers assigned. Poll workers there earn a base pay of between $160 to $180.

“In the fall we had a couple of precincts, about five, where we had to have county workers fill in. It would be great if people would step up and do this,” Kuznik said. “I’m never confident because in many precincts, we have people but we don’t have any backups. No one gets rich by being a poll worker.”