Preston County’s clerk wants to give poll workers a pay increase.
Currently, a poll worker gets $150 a day, which averages about $10 an hour, Clerk Linda Huggins told the Preston County Commission at its most recent meeting.
She recommend that workers get an additional $25, for a total of $175 a day. Training lasts 1.5-2 hours, and workers get $25 for attending.
“Some travel a mile, some travel 25 miles to get to training and back,” Huggins said.
In total, the cost for the raises would be about $5,600, Huggins said.
“Now, I could, in my budget, help with that but … the election budget’s pretty tight,” Huggins said.
The four municipalities holding elections in May’s primary will reimburse the county, but not completely, and the money will go to the general fund but not the election fund, she said.
Commissioner Don Smith asked if Huggins knew how much the county would receive. She said she didn’t have exact numbers but estimated $1,500-$2,000 per municipality.
Other counties have increased poll worker pay and are above Preston’s rate. Commissioner Dave Price said it’s a topic that’s come up in discussions with other commissioners.
“Simply because they need to keep people going,” Price said. “… It sure is probably a good idea.”
Commission President Samantha Stone said when she was making calls to get people to work the polls, it was a bit of a struggle.
“I do feel it’s time for us to do an increase but if you’ll just give us a little bit of time to see where we want to pull the funds from to do that; what you can contribute,” Stone said.
Huggins said she could contribute $2,000 at most.
The last increase was from $125 to $150, but Huggins said she couldn’t remember how many years ago that was.
County Administrator Kathy Mace said she would work with Huggins on the issue and the topic will be discussed at the May 5 commission meeting.
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