The Johnson County election office asked for election workers in anticipation of high voter turnout, and they got a huge response.
There are 3,900 workers, and 2,500 of those are brand new.
JOCO election office's NEW lab, where poll workers get hands on experience before Nov 8. Most poll workers are new this year. @41ActionNews pic.twitter.com/6jrbGG2TH4
— Sarah Plake (@SarahPlakeTV) November 1, 2016
"With so many election workers, one of the key things they told us is they wanted to be confident in running equipment," Election Commissioner Ronnie Metsker said.
Workers essentially learn how to help voters. They get training in a classroom, but that wasn't enough.
There's a new training lab, where workers get hands-on practice. It's located at the K-State Innovation campus in Olathe. It's open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Saturday.
The lab has 25 voting machines, two encoder machines and 10 poll pads. They learn how to set up and close down the machines, practice checking in a voter, and printing out voter reports.
"They can come in, stay as long as they wish, leave when they want to," Metsker said. "But when they leave, every person we talked to, they say, I feel good now, I feel like I know what I'm doing."
Kristine Stuart is a new election worker, and says she feels so confident that she's now instructing others.
Election worker training in JOCO. 2,500 workers signed up @41ActionNews pic.twitter.com/TjOe9KrgSR
— Sarah Plake (@SarahPlakeTV) November 1, 2016
"It's been really interesting learning about the whole process from kind of a behind-the-scenes perspective. It's really exciting when people come in and they're excited about learning and are appreciative of our help," Stuart said.
The poll pads are new, too. The voter will check in on what's essentially an iPad, instead of on paper. Metsker says that eliminates the potential for human error. Now that Johnson County is in advanced voting, he says the electronic poll pads have made everything much quicker.
This general election is the first time Johnson County will use the new poll pads.
Another surprising thing is that one third of the new election workers are young. High school students are participating.
"This is tomorrow's America, and we have a hand in showing them what democracy is all about," Metsker said.
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Sarah Plake can be reached at Sarah.Plake@KSHB.com
