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Dallas County poll workers have a simple request: pay us promptly

Signs for candidates near a polling location Tuesday, March 5, 2024, at Reverchon Park Recreation Center in Dallas.
Yfat Yossifor
/
KERA
Signs for candidates near a polling location at Reverchon Park Recreation Center in Dallas in March.

Poll workers who staffed Dallas County elections this year have not yet been paid.

County commissioners questioned the new elections administrator Heider Garcia during commissioners court this week.

At least six complaint letters detailing slowly paid or unpaid wages were sent to Commissioner John Wiley Price, which he shared with the court.

Some haven't been paid in more than a month, they said.

Several voting site workers voiced their irritation during public comment.

Dianna Jackson is the election judge at Friendship West Baptist Church.

“Unfortunately, Mr. Garcia found it unnecessary to pay election workers on Friday, May the 24th, because he felt his staff was exhausted from the back-to-back elections,” she said. “He wanted them to have the break they deserve. But, what about us in the field? We have worked back-to-back elections as well — to serve our voters — in inclement weather, hauling equipment for curbside voting and long hours. At least Mr. Garcia and his staff are exhausted from working back-to-back elections at the comfort of their desk, with pay, while we are exhausted, working daily without pay.”

County Judge Clay Lewis Jenkins asked the new elections administrator whether they could get paid every two weeks, like county employees.

Heider Garcia said no, but that he would try to get them paid faster.

"Right now they're being paid in three weeks,” he said. “And it used to be four. So there has been an effect. We'll make it better. We'll make it two. We'll find a way."

Garcia started his job in December.

Got a tip? Email Marina Trahan Martinez at mmartinez@kera.org. You can follow Marina at @HisGirlHildy.

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Marina Trahan Martinez is KERA's Dallas County government accountability reporter. She's a veteran journalist who has worked in the Dallas area for many years. Prior to coming to KERA, she was on The Dallas Morning News Watchdog investigative and accountability team with Dave Lieber. She has written for The New York Times since 2001, following the 9/11 attacks. Many of her stories for The Times focused on social justice and law enforcement, including Botham Jean's murder by a Dallas police officer and her subsequent trial, Atatiana Jefferson's shooting death by a Fort Worth police officer, and protests following George Floyd's murder. Marina was part of The News team that a Pulitzer finalist for coverage of the deadly ambush of Dallas police officers in 2016.