Iowa City Press Citizen, IA
09-25-06
Additional training in store for poll workers
By Rachel Gallegos
Iowa City Press-Citizen
Precinct election officials throughout the state of Iowa will participate in a new
training program in time for the Nov. 7 general election.
The new round of training is not because of existing problems, but rather to give
all poll workers the same statewide guidelines, said Darrell Hanson, Iowa State
University Extension county education director in Delaware County.
Hanson and Johnson County Auditor Tom Slockett will train local precinct
election officials.
Slockett said the goal is to train two election officials for each of the 57 Johnson
County precincts. There are 1,780 voting precincts statewide.
"This will be more intense training in smaller groups," Slockett said. "I think it will
be much more effective learning."
The auditor's office invited two people per precinct, including precinct
chairpersons if they were able to attend, he said.
The election officials participating in the training will attend three two-hour
sessions. The goal is to teach precinct election officials how to work together,
how to avoid confrontation with voters, how to open and close the polls and how
to deal with special situations.
The third session will give the precinct election officials time for hands-on
learning with the new machines.
In Johnson County, touch-screen voting machines were available for the June
primary election. The iVotronic machine also can give audio instructions in
English and Spanish for the visually impaired.
In the past, auditor's offices were limited by law to only one two-hour training
session before an election. Now there is time to train workers on the new
equipment as well as having the two-hour lecture before each election.
"I just think it will make the poll workers more comfortable with the situations that
arise," Slockett said.
Hanson said the precinct election officials in the state "are great volunteers," but
because they only do this type of work a few days a year, he feels it beneficial to
have this type of review course.
This training was developed by Iowa State Association of County Auditors, the
Iowa Secretary of State's Office and Iowa State University Extension.
The training is funded in large part by the Help America Vote Act of 2002,
Slockett said. Poll workers will receive $54 for the six hours of training, with $50
of that coming from HAVA funds.
In Johnson County, the training will be Tuesday, Oct. 4, Oct. 10, Oct. 12, Oct. 17
and Oct. 19, with two classes each day.
Slockett said in the future, online training also will be available.