Texas short on election workers for primary

David Edwards and Muriel Kane

Published: Monday March 3, 2008



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With a record voter turnout expected in Tuesday's primary, Texas is scrambling to find enough election workers to cover the polls.

Election Judge Mike Conwell even went door-to-door in Travis County on Saturday, looking for volunteers. "I think it is an unusual step ... but I'm kind of running out of options," Conwell told Austin's KVUE News.

"If the county doesn't get enough volunteers by Tuesday," KVUE reported, "precincts may be combined, which could create confusion for voters."

There could be even greater problems facing Texas voters in some counties. According to a blog at OpEd News:

"The lines at many Democratic Precinct Polling Places in Republican heavy counties may be frustratingly long. Long lines and long waits at Democratic Polling places are likely to occur because Texas Secretary of State Phil Wilson (R) used 2004 primary voting pattern numbers to allocate Election Clerks and County owned Voting Equipment to 2008 Democratic Primary Precinct Polling places. ...

"Democratic precinct polling place skeleton crews of just one Election Clerk, in addition to one each Election and Alternate Judge, and only two voting booths likely will not keep pace with late day voting as people line up to vote after work, before polling places close at 7 P.M. This may spawn long lines waiting to vote when the polls close at 7 P.M., just when people are due to start arriving back at their respective polling places for the Democratic Precinct Caucus Conventions, scheduled to start at 7:15 P.M. ... This means people may be voting for more than a hour after the polling place doors are locked at 7 P.M."

A transcript of the KVUE segment can be found here.

This video is from KVUE.com, broadcast March 1, 2008.







