Cranston needs to fill 120 poll positions

The city’s short on poll workers this election season.

Cranston election officials need to recruit, hire, and train more than 120 poll workers by Sept. 10.

“At this point in time, we are looking to fill about 120 vacant positions between Sept. 10 and Nov. 5, in addition to building a reserve back-up force of 40 to 50 people that we can plug into positions as we lose previously hired poll workers due to extenuating circumstances,” said Nick Lima, the Cranston Canvassing Authority’s registrar and director of elections.

Help Needed

Lima sounded the alarm Monday night. He took to social media and also emailed this year’s candidates for office in Cranston and party officials.

“I am writing to let you know the Cranston Board of Canvassers (CBOC) is actively recruiting poll workers for the Sept. 10 Statewide Primary and Nov. 5 General Election,” Lima wrote. “Our office still has approximately 120 positions (out of over 600 total) left to recruit, hire, and train between the two elections, including 65 vacancies for the upcoming Sept. 10 Primary.”

The BOC is running an ad in the Cranston Herald through August. And a virtual help wanted ad has been posted on the city’s website.

According to Lima, pay rates for poll workers range from $200 to $250 per election.

To apply, he urges interested potential poll workers to call the Canvassing Authority at 401-780-3127 or email canvassing@cranstonri.gov.

Monumental Ask

According to Lima, each election cycle, the CBOC has to hire “over 600 poll worker positions — 300 for the Sept. 10 Statewide Primary and another 300 for the Nov. 5 General Election.”

“We start with our list of over 700 people who have marked being ‘interested’ in a poll worker on their voter registration form,” Lima said. “We send them all a letter, and follow up with phone calls. We also call all poll workers who were with us the previous election cycle.”

After that list of contacts is exhausted, and the department still has positions left to fill, they move on to a recruitment phase. That’s where they stand, with approximately 120 vacancies remaining.

“Maria Madonna, our election operations coordinator, personally calls hundreds of poll workers and walks them through the application process, explains how things work on Election Day, and then assigns them to a training class,” Lima said Tuesday. “All poll workers must attend a training class.”

Poll workers are split different categories, and paid slightly different rates.

“Supervisors and greeters — the people who check in voters and manage lines — are paid $200 for working from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Election Day and attending a 90-minute class,” Lima explained. “Moderators and clerks — who exercise supervision of the polling place, personnel and equipment — are paid $250 and have a slightly longer day, and a longer training, due to their increased responsibilities.”

The city has 26 precinct polling places, and each will have “two moderators, two clerks, four to six supervisors and one greeter, who can also fill in as a supervisor.”

“Polls need, at minimum, one moderator, one clerk and four supervisors to operate effectively, so we always assign above and beyond in order to avoid lines, and make up for any call outs, of which there are always some,” Lima said. “We also hire a back-up reserve force, who are paid $25 for training but will only work if we need them.”

That backup force is a necessity, not a luxury.

“Every election cycle, between the recruitment process and Election Day, we typically end up assigning every back-up we have, as we tend to lose some of the 300 poll workers for that election due to attrition,” Lima said.

Not about the Money

Poll worker wages have recently ticked up.

“This is the first major election where Cranston has increased the stipend for poll workers — all positions are making $25 more per election than they did in 2020 or 2022,” Lima said. “The stipend was previously increased in 2018.”

Lima said, “being a poll worker is at its heart a public service function — poll workers are essential volunteers for our democracy, and the stipend is the very least we can do to make up for the time they spend serving their community.”

“Poll workers are sworn in during training as election officials, making them public officers under state law,” Lima explained.

All Rhode Island registered voters are eligible to be a poll worker. That includes preregistered voters who may be 16 or 17 years old.

“Our poll workers range in age from 16 to 98, and all are required to work the full day on Election Day,” Lima said. “We can’t offer split shifts, because that would mean even more people to hire and coordinate — and cause issues if the second shift doesn’t show up — and also because we want the same poll workers who open the polls and sign chain of custody forms to close them and sign those same forms after polls close at 8 p.m.”

Some poll shifts start 20 days before each election.

“We also have more than a dozen people working early voting for the 20-day period leading up to both elections,” Lima explained. “Those workers are already hired and in place, and unlike traditional poll workers, they are temporary part-time employees of the city, but still sworn to their duties.”

After sounding the alarm Monday night, Lima woke up to a deluge of interested applicants.

“Not a bad morning when I have 65 emails from prospective poll workers sitting in our inbox,” Lima posted on social media early Tuesday. “Thanks everyone who has helped us get the word out!”

“We'll be reaching out to everyone who has contacted us in the coming days with more information and to discuss the application process,” Lima informed his followers.