Assistant Clerk Recorder Susan Patenaude says a new voting system – paper ballots instead of punch cards – may have discouraged some former poll workers from signing up this year:

With poll workers sometimes, something new…it gets a little scary for them, so we’ve had some drop out, because they’re afraid of the new system.
 
Patenaude  says poll workers put in a pretty long day  -- from about 6:30 in the morning to 9 at night.  They do get paid -- around 100 dollars.  But she says most do it because of a sense of civic duty.  Poll workers help voters check in, they issue voters their ballots, make sure voters get their ballots in the ballot box and they assist the disabled with voting if needed.