Berks County election officials have decided to raise salaries for those who choose to vote in November.
The Electoral Commission voted at a meeting on Thursday to make a number of changes to provide better pay for poll workers. These measures have been taken in the hope of encouraging more people to come by on election day to sign voters and ensure that the process goes smoothly.
The council voted to pay all poll workers, regardless of position, $200 for their work on Election Day. This is the maximum allowed by the state election code.
Previously, the daily salary for election judges was $200 and $180 for all other positions.
To compensate election judges for the additional responsibilities and work they take on, the board decided to increase their pay to attend a pair of training sessions from $30 per session to $75 per session. All other workers will remain at $30 per session.
Election judges will also see an increase in the amount they are paid to pick up and drop off election materials. They will receive $20 for each of the two trips, a significant increase from the $2 per trip they previously received.
County Commissioners Chairman Christian Leinbach said the pay increases were more than fair, noting that all poll workers must be at polls well before they open to voters and are required to stay on until that the electoral judges leave the premises.
“That works out to about $16 an hour,” he said. “I just think it’s important for people to know that we’re not just throwing money out there. It’s important work, and we have 1,200 people working 202 polling stations in every election, so I think that’s more than appropriate.
The board also received an update from election staff on the status of mail-in ballots.
The first batch of mail-in ballots are being sent to Taylor Corporation, the Minnesota-based printing company that has been hired by the county to print mail and provisional ballots, by the end of the week. This means that this first batch of almost 22,000 ballots should be sent to voters by the end of next week.
