Elections chief warns of poll-worker shortage, petition fraud and new ballot-viewing rules

Tracy, Hall County’s elections official, told the board that the elections budget is “pretty status quo” for personnel but that operating changes reflect an increase in election-related activity and compliance requirements. She said the county has been working to recruit younger poll workers and that “every county across the entire nation is always struggling to get poll workers,” noting the local poll-worker pool skews older than the national average.

Tracy also reported about 1,200 petition filings connected to online sports gaming and expressed heightened concern about fraudulent petition activity, saying that the county is seeing “a lot of what we saw with medical marijuana” in terms of questionable petition submissions. On compliance with a recent state requirement for public viewing of ballot counting, Tracy said county staff will install a camera system to create a viewing room for the vault rather than cutting through a block wall into the boardroom.

Board members asked about potential drafting of poll workers and using county employees as a last resort; Tracy said some counties have tried jury‑duty‑style drafting and that the county had trained 50 deputy registrars and reached high schools for registration outreach. No formal policy change was adopted at the meeting; commissioners asked staff to continue recruitment and planning.