Election board in need of precinct officials

ENID, Okla. — Garfield County Election Board is in need of precinct officials to help out with three back-to-back elections.

About 90 people are needed to run each of the elections, which are scheduled for Feb. 14, March 7 and April 4, said Coulten Cue, election board secretary.

Cue said precinct officials are the “key roles” in making elections run successfully.

“Without them, obviously, the election at that precinct doesn’t move on,” he said. “If we don’t have them, then there’s the thought of having to combine a precinct. ... Although it’s not very much pay, they do hold a very important job in the day, ... but they are the key to the success of the day. We couldn’t do it without them.”

Most precincts will have three positions. Inspectors, Cue said, will essentially run the precinct and are in charge of picking up the machines. This position pays $110 per day plus mileage, if living within a certain distance from the precinct.

Judges will run the books and sign voters in, and clerks will hand out ballots to voters. The pay for both of these positions is $100 per day plus mileage, if living within a certain distance from the precinct.

There are 28 precincts in Garfield County, and busier ones may have up to five precinct officials running the show. A provisional voting officer position also is available, which has the same pay as judges and clerks.

Polls are open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on election days, and the workers will be there the entire day and are welcome to bring their own lunches.

To be a precinct official, individuals must live and be a registered voter in Garfield County. After a brief interview and going over paperwork with Cue, they are required to complete an online training, which takes about two hours and 15 minutes to do and can be done at their homes or at the election board.

An additional $35 will be provided for conducting the training, which will be sent via email.

“They’ll take a booklet — lots of reading — home with them and any kind of training material that they would like. They’ll watch their video and come back, and they’ll be good to go,” Cue said.

For more information, or to sign up to be a precinct official, visit the election board, 903 Failing, between 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday; call (580) 237-6016; or email garfieldcounty@elections.ok.gov.

Cue said there is no deadline to sign up to be a precinct official.

“If you sign up the day before an election and get trained fast enough, we can do a brief overview,” he said. “We’re going to have three very busy months, so we’re going to need all hands on deck.”

The deadline to request an absentee ballot for the Feb. 14 election is Jan. 30, and the deadline to register as a voter in the March 7 election is Feb. 10, and the deadline to request an absentee ballot for that election is Feb. 20.

For the April 4 election, the voter registration deadline is March 10, and the absentee ballot request deadline is March 20.