A note from Erin:
“I’m excited to collaborate with Wheeling Heritage to bring you a series that focuses on voter registration and election news — explaining new laws, clearing up misunderstandings and misinformation, and helping shed light on how the whole process works. This monthly article will be fact-based, so whether you’re not political at all, a casual voter, or staunchly left, right, or somewhere in between, the information shared here affects you.”
As part of this ongoing series, Erin continues to share key updates that impact local voters. This month’s edition covers an important change coming to West Virginia’s Republican Primary Elections; one that will directly affect thousands of unaffiliated and independent voters.
Available on Election Day?
Are you available on Election Day? Are you interested in earning some extra cash? You should consider signing up to be an Ohio County poll worker.
The national poll worker shortage greatly affected Ohio County and most other counties in West Virginia during the 2024 election cycle. It’s not hard to understand why. Working for the election is a big job, it’s important because in-person voting cannot happen without voters stepping up to fill those positions at precincts on Election Day. The Ohio County Commission understands the importance of our poll workers and just this past August awarded them a pay raise. Workers now receive $30.00 for the mandatory training and $270.00 for Election Day.
Ohio County has 36 precincts, all requiring at the very minimum 5 poll workers. Our veteran poll workers can tell you, having the minimum makes for a very hard day, so we do have a goal of at least 7 workers per precinct. The County also needs workers at the City-County building to take supplies to precincts that run out, run errands, replace machines in the event one malfunctions, among many other responsibilities.
Requirements for Poll Workers
- You must be a registered voter in the county
- You must be able to read and write the English Language
- You must attend the training and be available for the entirety of Election Day
- You cannot be a candidate or official write-in candidate on the ballot
- You cannot be the parent, child, sibling or spouse of a candidate or official write-in candidate on the ballot
- You must not be prohibited from serving as an Election Official due to any other laws or disqualifications
If you’re interested in signing up, or have any additional questions, please email me at the address below. You can also find the poll worker registration form at https://www.ohiocountywv.gov/docs/is_POLLWORKERREGISTRATION.pdf. During the 2024 General Election, Democrat poll workers signed up almost three times more than Republican, while everyone is encouraged to reach out if they are interested, Ohio County needs Republican poll workers.
Next Month: What offices will be on the ballot
eallietta@ohiocountywv.gov
