Marin County Sees Deluge of Volunteers At Polls, Less Voters
MARIN COUNTY (CBS SF) -- Some say finding people willing to work the polls is a lot like trying to find people to serve on a Jury. But in Marin County, on the eve of the 2020 election, that's not the case.
"We were really concerned, originally about being able to get enough Poll Workers for this election because of Covid. But, we had over a 1,000 applicants," Marin County Registrar of Voters Linda Roberts said, adding they had so many volunteers some were turned away.
The percentage of in-person voting in Marin County isn't what they predicted either.
"This election, our traffic here is very light. It's surprising all of us how light the traffic is here. Polling places are running very smoothly," Roberts said.
Mail-in ballots, absentee ballots and drop off boxes all helped decrease the poll workers' workload, along with some additional help from some high school students.
"Yesterday, there was this one guy who didn't know how to speak English and so I was the only one here that knew how to speak Spanish and I helped him," Political Science Student Kimberly Gonzales said.
Poll workers deal with all kinds of people, some stressed and others just not knowing how to vote. Roberts explains the Poll Workers have to be patient.
"They have to be able to deal with the Public so Public service, you know, being able to remain calm under pressure," Roberts said.
So far, the light turnout here in Marin County is making the poll workers' jobs go smoothly.