News

Elections board seeks check-in workers for May 17 primary

By Lightning Reports, Published: April 4, 2022

The upward pressure on pay rates caused by the severe labor shortage has hit the Henderson County Board of Elections.

The elections board is having trouble recruiting computer operators to check in voters for the May 17 primary election.
“You know, we normally use a lot of high school students to help on the computers because they're so good on them,” said Elections Director Karen Hebb said. “And we actually had a teacher that told us that our pay was not competitive enough to get high schoolers to work for us.”
The job — which requires about one hour of training and a 6 a.m.-8 p.m. shift on primary Election Day on May 17 — pays $170-175.
“We probably could use anywhere from 10 to 15,” she said. The county has 35 precincts.
Anyone interested may call Summer Heatherly at the Board of Elections at 828-697-4970, stop by and fill out an application or visit hendersoncountync.gov/elections (click on public information tab) and complete an application.
“They can print it out and bring it in,” Hebb said. “We need to meet everyone before we hire him.”