As Maryland gears up for what’s expected to be the largest voter turnout in state history this November, election officials are closing the knowledge gap between the mostly elderly poll workers and the modern voting equipment.
“The majority of [election] judges are retirees and they’re not completely savvy with the new machines,” said W. Gregory Wims, a member of the Maryland attorney general’s task force on voting irregularities, which released a report on fraud in the 2006 primary elections last week.
Wims joined national election experts and local officials in saying that in past elections, the knowledge gap has caused long lines that can prevent some voters from casting their ballot.
Jeffrey Zaino, vice president of elections for the American Arbitration Association, which oversees hundreds of private elections each year, said more focus has to be placed on training the mostly elderly election judges in the public sector, even in areas where electronic voting machines have been around for the better part of a decade.
“There are seasoned poll workers who are afraid of the technology” Zaino said. But “you can’t expect to see changes overnight.”
In Montgomery and Prince George’s counties, however, those changes are already under way, election officials said.
Alisha Alexander, the Prince George’s elections administrator, said that before the primary in February, the county switched its training courses to a more hands-on approach. Every poll worker now handles each piece of equipment, she said.
And in Montgomery County, Sara Harris, deputy elections director, said each poll worker has been given a one-on-one lesson, a policy that was put in place after the 2002 election when workers struggled with the new electronic equipment for the first time.
Harris added that in light of the big crowds expected in November, the county is urging voters to cast absentee ballots instead of heading to the polls.
Raising the training bar wasincluded among several recommendations in the attorney general’s voting task force’s report.
The task force said the state should run multiple classes for elections officials throughout the year, but for now a conference call reviewing election laws and process should take place in the late summer.
