Tarrant County is short about 200 election clerks needed to man the polls during the March 3 primaries, elections administrator Clint Ludwig told the Fort Worth Report.
It’s unusual but not unheard of to have such a shortage of poll workers. However, Tarrant County is typically “pretty close to fully staffed” a week ahead of Election Day, Ludwig said.
“We can’t figure it out,” Ludwig said Wednesday about the shortage. “We’ve been working the phones feverishly, trying to find enough clerks and judges, and it’s just been a struggle this year for some reason. I don’t know.”
In total, the county needs close to 2,000 clerks to fully staff 200 voting sites March 3. Without a full staff, some polling sites risk closure.
Of the still-needed 200 clerks, Ludwig said the county wants 75 to 80 bilingual Spanish speakers and 10 to 15 bilingual Vietnamese speakers.
During the primaries, each polling site is led by two elections judges — one Republican and one Democrat — and at least two clerks. The clerks help voters check in and scan ballots.
Tarrant County pays election clerks $15 per hour.
On Election Day, clerks start their shifts at about 5:30 a.m. to set up voting equipment and get the polls ready, then typically work until 8 or 9 p.m., Ludwig said. Clerks may work a half-day, he noted.
It’s an unglamorous job without many perks, he admitted, but it’s a chance to be “part of the process and see how it works.”
“It’s an opportunity to serve your local community and help provide democracy where you live,” Ludwig added.
The primary ballot includes partisan races at the county, state and federal levels. Voters cast ballots as either a Democrat or a Republican to nominate candidates to face off in the general election in November.
This year, Tarrant County’s primaries drew higher than usual turnout.
About 75,000 Democrats and about 54,000 Republicans voted during the first eight days of in-person early voting, according to preliminary reports from the county elections office. During the 2024 primaries, about 17,500 Democrats and about 41,500 Republicans had voted in the first eight days of early voting.
The voting surge came less than a month after the high-profile Texas Senate District 9 runoff election Jan. 31. Democrat Taylor Rehmet drew national attention as he claimed victory by 13 percentage points in the historically red north Tarrant County district.
Ludwig isn’t sure why voter excitement in the primaries hasn’t translated to interest in poll-working.
It’s “very, very challenging” to convince people to work the long hours of an election clerk, especially when many would have to take paid time off from their day jobs, said Allison Campolo, chair of the Tarrant County Democratic Party.
She noted national concern around election integrity, as well as reports of election fraud and harassment of poll workers, could intimidate some away from the opportunity. But polls can’t open without poll workers.
“It’s the only way to have our democracy function is to be a poll worker and to have people work the polls,” Campolo said.
Tim Davis, chair of the Tarrant County GOP, said via text message he was looking into the shortage but otherwise did not return a request for comment.
What happens if Tarrant can’t get 200 more election clerks by Tuesday?
The worst-case scenario, Campolo said, is that some polling sites would close. But realistically, a site would likely only close if neither party had staff to man it, she noted.
When only one party’s workers are available at a site, both parties have shared election judges and clerks in years past, she said.
In 2022, for example, polling sites across Texas were unable to open for the primaries because of a worker shortage, according to The Texas Tribune. During that election, the Tarrant County parties shared workers to keep polls open, while more than a dozen locations closed intermittently for two hours.
Campolo said she hadn’t heard back from Davis on whether he would be open to sharing poll workers, but she hopes they come to an agreement by Tuesday.
How to become an elections clerk
To be a clerk, you must be registered to vote in Tarrant County. Those interested may submit this completed form by email to electionday@tarrantcountytx.gov or by mail to P.O. Box 961011, Fort Worth, Texas 76161-0011. You may also call the county elections office at 817-831-8683.
Cecilia Lenzen is a government accountability reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact her at cecilia.lenzen@fortworthreport.org.
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