Bucks County Board of Elections seeks poll workers

The Bucks County Board of Elections will face its first presidential election tallying mail-in and absentee ballots as well as in-person voting this fall, while in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.

Since many voters may opt to mail their ballots, the prospect of hundreds of thousands of these ballots that will need to be counted on election night, has county officials working now to prepare for the colossal undertaking.

The election board is in the process of acquiring new equipment to help count the votes as it also plans to hire additional staff and put out a request for workers to serve, with pay, on election day at the polls.

The Bucks commissioners voted Wednesday to provide the board with six high-speed ballot scanners to bring the county’s total to 10 and four “rapid extraction desks” to make opening the ballot envelopes easier, for a total cost of $430,478, to be paid out of the CARES Act federal funding the county received to deal with the pandemic.

During the June 2 primary election, employees from other county departments helped the election board process the votes.

“It was yeoman’s work,” Gail Humphrey, county chief clerk, reported at the commissioners' meeting Wednesday, adding that the extra equipment being purchased should help make counting the ballots quicker and with fewer people having to handle them.

The board also approved the purchase of two on-demand ballot printers for $37,200, also from the CARES Act funds. These will be sent to the county government offices in Levittown and Quakertown, to join the one on-demand ballot printer now at the county administration building in Doylestown. Voters who don't want to use the postal service to mail their ballot will be able to have one printed out that they can fill out in a secure manner at one of the three governmental sites.

“We feel this would be an added service for voters,” Humphrey said.

Margie McKevitt, the chief operating officer for the county, said that anyone who wants to apply to work at the polls on election day should call the Board of Elections at 215-348-6154 to apply.

Thomas Freitag, director of the election board, plans to hold training sessions for poll workers in Falls, Bensalem, Doylestown and Quakertown in out-door programs to avoid spread of the coronavirus.

The commissioners have not yet set the pay rate for the various positions to be filled at the polls but in the primary election, the judge of elections received $135 for the day while other poll workers received $105 for a full day and $52.50 for a half day’s service as machine inspectors or clerks, said county spokesman Larry King.

Commissioner Gene DiGirolamo said he hopes the state legislature will approve a plan to allow election boards in the more heavily populated counties to securely begin opening and getting the mail-in ballots ready for counting a day or two before election day, so that there won't be a long delay in knowing the results of the presidential election in Pennsylvania, a key battleground state.

This article originally appeared on Bucks County Courier Times: Bucks County seeks poll workers