As the presidential election approaches, counties in Illinois and Iowa are selecting election judges and poll workers to help certify ballot results.
With just over a month until election day, the Quad Cities is expecting high voter turnout, whether that be mail-in, early or in person on November 5th, the counties are making sure everyone can place their vote.
“We’re just planning for a higher turnout, so we have more temp staff here so that we can process things, we have more poll workers at the polls and then we have the early voting, which again we still offer early voting in different elections, but it’s just going to be more,” said Scott County Auditor Kerri Tompkins. “We have a record number of early voting satellite locations here in Scott county this year of 14. We’re in the process of coordinating and assigning all of those, so that we can have those ready to go.”
Every voting spot will have trained representatives from both parties.
“A lot of people don’t know this, but at each vote center, we have to have a republican judge and a democrat judge and they look over each other,” said Rock Island County Clerk Karen Kinney. “They make sure everything is done properly. So it’s very important that we have enough judges from both parties to work as an election judge. They have to be dependable, they have to be quite skilled in mathematics and some patience always helps.”
With the help of these volunteers, both Rock Island and Scott counties feel ready.
“We certainly can’t do this without poll workers and those are volunteers they get paid, but they’re giving up their time so that they can serve the citizens,” said Tompkins. “Overall it’s been a lot, but I feel like we’re in a great spot and we’re ready to go, we’ll be ready for November 5th.”
More early voting locations will open in Illinois October 21st and early voting starts in Iowa October 16th.
To register to vote in Illinois, click here.
To register to vote in Iowa, click here.