St. Joseph County Clerk's Office prepares for National Poll Worker Recruitment Day on Tuesday

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- The stage is set for the general election in November. Voters across Michiana have made their decision about who they want to represent them in multiple races.

Candidates aren't the only ones gearing up for November, the St. Joseph County Clerk's Office is too.

The St. Joseph County Clerk's Office will be recruiting poll workers for National Poll Worker Recruitment Day on Tuesday You can fill out an application in person or online.

"This is what they'll see when they go online to actually register to work the polls on election day, and then we also have our voter registration form here, which is just a paper form, and they just fill out some basic information," said Marsel Carter, Deputy Clerk, as he showed the application clipped to a clip board.

St. Joseph County Clerk, Amy Rolfes, explains the process once you turn in that application.

"We accept that application in, but then we sort it once we take it back up to our office because it is the political parties that are responsible for coming up with the poll workers. So, Democrat vote history would go in the Democrat pile, and the Republican vote history would go in the Republican pile, and then we pass on the information about those people who are interested in working the election to the individual political parties," explained Rolfes.

After that, each political party will reach out to any interested and they will vet the candidates. Once the fall rolls around, each political party will provide their nominations to the county's election board.

Training starts in September.

"We will have 10 different trainings, so we'd like class size to be small. Some will be over at Indiana University South Bend, and some on the weekend right before the election will be here at the County City building. It runs about an hour, maybe an hour and a half. There is instruction about every step that happens in the election process, and we also have the vote machines here wherever there is a training, so the election workers can actually touch the machines, they can practice on the machines, and they can completely understand how the process works," said Rolfes.

Rolfes says they're casting a wide net for interested people and hope veterans and teenagers are reeled in.

"I have read research that says when veterans and their families work the election, public trust increases because veterans have already served their country and now, they're serving their community by working on election day, so that's an area that we are very interested in recruiting more veterans to come and work. We also have a program for 16- and 17-year-olds. It's called the Hoosier Hall Pass. So tomorrow, I would encourage 16- and 17-year-olds since they're not in school yet, to come and sign up as a Hoosier Hall Pass election worker; they get $160 for the day. They will get trained as well,"

You can apply to be an election worker at the County City Building in South Bend or the Mishawaka County Services Building on Tuesday, August 11.