City and town clerks and election officials are scrambling to prepare for the fall election season amid the coronavirus pandemic.
City and town clerks and election officials are scrambling to prepare for the fall election season amid the coronavirus pandemic. Many are actively recruiting young people to be poll workers, who in the past have often been retirees. Because of their age, those retirees are now more susceptible to contracting COVID-19. “All parts of this election are more challenging because of the pandemic,” said Debra O’Malley, a spokeswoman for Secretary of State William F. Galvin. “We’re going to need a full complement of poll workers. Fortunately, we’re hearing from a lot of young people because they feel they’re in a safer position to work the polls and open mail-in ballots.” Lowell has posted both a vote-by-mail application and a poll worker job application on its website and is taking a look at how New York and other cities successfully managed their primaries earlier this year in the midst of the pandemic, said Elliott Veloso, interim director of elections. Poll workers could be as young as 17, he said, and the city is reaching out to its career center, UMass Lowell and community organizations to recruit people to man the polls and open mail-in ballots.
