BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Louisiana is looking for people to work polling locations for the fall elections.
Secretary of State Kyle Ardoin’s office announced Tuesday the launch of a recruitment campaign for election workers to help set up the polling locations, welcome voters and verify voter registrations.
The state pays up to $200 for Election Day workers and $100 per day for early voting poll commissioners, according to Ardoin’s office.
Louisiana has had concerns about poll worker shortages for years. But those concerns have heightened with the coronavirus outbreak, as many election commissioners are older and at greater risk to the COVID-19 illness caused by the virus. Ardoin’s office said more than half its election workers are elderly.
More details about how to become an election worker and who is eligible are available online.
Louisiana hasn’t settled on a plan for operating its Nov. 3 and Dec. 5 elections in the pandemic, because Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards and the majority-Republican Legislature disagree on how much to loosen the rules for absentee-by-mail balloting. A federal judge is expected to decide the regulations.