• Home
  • Opinion
  • Quizzes
  • Redistricting
  • Sections
  • About Us
  • Voting
  • Independent Voter News
  • Campaign Finance
  • Civic Ed
  • Directory
  • Election Dissection
  • Events
  • Fact Check
  • Glossary
  • News
  • Analysis
  • Subscriptions
  • Log in
Leveraging Our Differences
  • news & opinion
    • Big Picture
      • Civic Ed
      • Ethics
      • Leadership
      • Leveraging big ideas
      • Media
    • Business & Democracy
      • Corporate Responsibility
      • Impact Investment
      • Innovation & Incubation
      • Small Businesses
      • Stakeholder Capitalism
    • Elections
      • Campaign Finance
      • Independent Voter News
      • Redistricting
      • Voting
    • Government
      • Balance of Power
      • Budgeting
      • Congress
      • Judicial
      • Local
      • State
      • White House
    • Justice
      • Accountability
      • Anti-corruption
      • Budget equity
    • Columns
      • Beyond Right and Left
      • Civic Soul
      • Congress at a Crossroads
      • Cross-Partisan Visions
      • Democracy Pie
      • Our Freedom
  • Pop Culture
      • American Heroes
      • Ask Joe
      • Celebrity News
      • Comedy
      • Dance, Theatre & Film
      • Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging
      • Faithful & Mindful Living
      • Music, Poetry & Arts
      • Sports
      • Technology
      • Your Take
      • American Heroes
      • Ask Joe
      • Celebrity News
      • Comedy
      • Dance, Theatre & Film
      • Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging
      • Faithful & Mindful Living
      • Music, Poetry & Arts
      • Sports
      • Technology
      • Your Take
  • events
  • About
      • Mission
      • Advisory Board
      • Staff
      • Contact Us
Sign Up
  1. Home>
  2. Voting>
  3. poll workers>

Poll worker shortage has Maryland officials seeking to cut voting sites

Sara Swann
https://twitter.com/saramswann?lang=en
August 10, 2020
Maryland election worker

Maryland election officials are struggling to recruit enough poll workers for the general election.

Robb Hill/Getty Images

Coronavirus concerns and a shortage of poll workers has the Maryland Board of Elections seeking a drastic reduction in the number of places to vote in November.

Gov. Larry Hogan has not yet said whether he will grant the board's request, delivered Friday, for permission to open just 282 voting centers this fall — or one-seventh the usual 1,600, in the reliably blue state. Last month, the Republican governor had directed officials to keep every in-person polling location open on Election Day, while also mailing absentee ballot applications to every voter.

What Hogan termed his plan for a "normal" election immediately raised concerns from Democrats, local election officials and good-government groups who said the arrangements would be too expensive and difficult to execute.


The 282 voting centers would allow Marylanders to cast their ballot early or on Election Day at any location in their county, rather than at a specific precinct based on their residential address. These voting centers would be located at every public high school in the state, along with other locations.

After an array of problems with the state's June primary, which was conducted mostly by mail, Hogan decided to go with a more traditional election in the fall. But local election administrators are struggling to recruit enough people to work the polls during the eight-day early voting period and on Election Day.

Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter

Local officials say they are more than 14,000 workers short of what's required under Hogan's plan. Two dozen facilities that usually serve as voting sites have also cited the public health crisis in refusing to host voting this fall.

While Hogan has not yet weighed in on this latest proposal, the state board of elections hopes he will see it as a good compromise that will provide enough in-person polling locations for voters while not overwhelming local election administrators.

In a letter to the elections board last week, Hogan reprimanded local officials who had suggested consolidating polling locations due to staff shortages, saying these closures would amount to statewide voter suppression. He also cited the Voting Rights Act and quoted from former President Barack Obama's eulogy for Rep. John Lewis.

The governor ordered the state board of elections to list the number of polling locations in each county that are able to be operational and outline how it plans to conduct the November election.

From Your Site Articles
  • Mail-in voting benefits neither party, is nearly fraud-free - The Fulcrum ›
  • Voting during coronavirus eased in 3 more states - The Fulcrum ›
  • Hogan's election plan for Maryland could cost $20 million - The ... ›
  • Hundreds of key counties need more poll workers - The Fulcrum ›
Related Articles Around the Web
  • Maryland Governor Larry Hogan, Prince George's Executive Angela ... ›
  • Maryland Election Board proposes opening just 360 voting centers ... ›
  • Hogan Directs Maryland Elections Board To Open All Polling Places ... ›
poll workers

Want to write
for The Fulcrum?

If you have something to say about ways to protect or repair our American democracy, we want to hear from you.

Submit
Get some Leverage Sign up for The Fulcrum Newsletter
Confirm that you are not a bot.
×
Follow

Support Democracy Journalism; Join The Fulcrum

The Fulcrum daily platform is where insiders and outsiders to politics are informed, meet, talk, and act to repair our democracy and make it live and work in our everyday lives. Now more than ever our democracy needs a trustworthy outlet

Contribute
Contributors

Grand Canyon gap in America today

Dave Anderson

Chief Justice John Roberts and Chief Justice Roger Taney are Twins– separated by only 165 years

Stephen E. Herbits

Conservatives attacking Americans’ First Amendment rights

Steve Corbin

To advance racial equity, policy makers must move away from the "Black and Brown" discourse

Julio A. Alicea

Policymakers must address worsening civil unrest post Roe

Sarah K. Burke

Video: How to salvage U.S. democracy from the "tyranny of the minority"

Our Staff
latest News

America’s greatest resource- Education

William Natbony
29 September

The Carter Center and Team Democracy unite to advance candidate principles for trusted elections

Ken Powley
29 September

There is no magic pill for postpartum depression

Priya Iyer
28 September

Advancing human rights, worldwide

Leland R. Beaumont
28 September

How statelessness gambles with the lives of American families

Samantha Sitterly
27 September

Podcast: Is reunification still possible?

Our Staff
27 September
Videos
Video: Expert baffled by Trump contradicting legal team

Video: Expert baffled by Trump contradicting legal team

Our Staff
Video: Do white leaders hinder black aspirations?

Video: Do white leaders hinder black aspirations?

Our Staff
Video: How to prepare for student loan repayments returning

Video: How to prepare for student loan repayments returning

Our Staff
Video: The history of Labor Day

Video: The history of Labor Day

Our Staff
Video: Trump allies begin to flip as prosecutions move forward

Video: Trump allies begin to flip as prosecutions move forward

Our Staff
Video Rewind: Trans-partisan practices and the "superpower of respect"

Video Rewind: Trans-partisan practices and the "superpower of respect"

Our Staff
Podcasts

Podcast: Is reunification still possible?

Our Staff
27 September

Podcast: All politics is local

Our Staff
22 September

Podcast: How states hold fair elections

Our Staff
14 September

Podcast: The MAGA Bubble, Bidenonmics and Playing the Victim

Debilyn Molineaux
David Riordan
12 September
Recommended
America’s greatest resource- Education

America’s greatest resource- Education

Big Picture
Grand Canyon gap in America today

Grand Canyon gap in America today

Elections
The Carter Center and Team Democracy unite to advance candidate principles for trusted elections

The Carter Center and Team Democracy unite to advance candidate principles for trusted elections

Big Picture
There is no magic pill for postpartum depression

There is no magic pill for postpartum depression

Big Picture
Advancing human rights, worldwide

Advancing human rights, worldwide

Big Picture
Chief Justice John Roberts and Chief Justice Roger Taney are Twins– separated by only 165 years

Chief Justice John Roberts and Chief Justice Roger Taney are Twins– separated by only 165 years

Big Picture