SOUTH BEND — The St. Joseph County Election and Voter Registration office needs election workers.
For the primary election Tuesday, May 5, it is down about 40 workers, according to St. Joseph County Chief Deputy Clerk of Elections Trisha Carrico.
To alleviate this, the board passed Resolution 2026-07 on Monday, April 27, to now allow precinct committee members or state convention delegates and their relatives to serve as poll workers.
“We are asking for a lot more workers than necessary because of a primary, people tend to not want to necessarily work it,” said Kim Riskovich election clerk for St. Joseph County. “They tend to go, ‘Oh, it’s a primary I don’t want to work’ or whatever.”
Not just absent poll workers
Getting workers to show up isn’t the only issue St. Joseph County is running into. Indiana law says there must be equal numbers of Republican and Democratic workers. And presently, there are more registered Democratic workers than Republican workers.
For a presidential election, the county would ideally need 700 people to run the election. For a primary, between 400 and 500 people is enough.
According to Carrico, because Democratic delegates are all at-large, it makes it easier to get people out to work the election. Republican delegates are within districts around the county.
“Due to the redistricting for our delegates, it’s made it a lot harder to recruit our previous workers because of instead of having three districts and then one set at-large, where you guys (Democrats) are all at-large, we have 15 different districts,” Carrico said.
“We’ve lost a lot of repeat vote center workers because they are being opposed to the redistricting of the delegates,” Carrico said. “And also, their family members.”
The resolution now frees up opposed precinct committee members and state convention delegate candidates as well as their relatives to work the election.
Who can work as an election worker in St. Joseph County?
There are a few eligibility requirements to work as a poll worker in St. Joseph County. One must meet all the requirements:
● Registered voter and resident of St. Joseph County.
● At least 18 years old or are 16 or 17 years old and a part of the Hoosier Hall Pass program.
● Be able to read, write and speak English.
And up until Monday, someone running as a candidate for a party office would have had to have been running unopposed in order to work as a poll worker. But the resolution, which passed 3-0, now waives that eligibility requirement.
How to sign up
St. Joseph County has an online portal where one can sign up. Or, alternatively, someone who wants to work as an election worker can call their party chair.
● St. Joseph County Republican Party Chair: Jackie Horvath 574-299-1388
● St. Joseph County Democratic Chair: Don Westerhausen 574-288-8683
The next step after being approved to work as an election worker is mandatory training. Even repeat workers need to refresh their training as new election laws pass.
There are four more training courses ahead of the primary election, Tuesday, May 5.
● Saturday, May 2, 10 a.m. at the County-City Building 227 W. Jefferson Blvd.
● Saturday, May 2, 1 p.m. at the County-City Building 227 W. Jefferson Blvd.
● Sunday, May 5, 1 p.m. at the County-City Building 227 W. Jefferson Blvd.
● Sunday, May 5, 3 p.m. at the County-City Building 227 W. Jefferson Blvd.
Call the Voter Registration office to sign up for training at 574-235-9521.
Email Tribune staff writer Juliane Balog at jbalog@usatodayco.com.
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: County Election Board approves resolution to help staff election day
Reporting by Juliane Balog , South Bend Tribune / South Bend Tribune
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