After more than 35 years of helping voters through elections, 82-year-old Mary Whitney of Milton was finding the long days as a poll worker tiring. Even so, she was determined to serve through this year’s presidential election.
But after working the recent primary in Massachusetts, Whitney came to a decision.
“I didn't feel safe. That was the thing at the end of the night, I said, you know, I didn't feel safe here,” Whitney said.
Across the country, poll workers are mostly older Americans. According to the U.S. Election Assistance Commission’s Election Administration and Voting Survey, for the 2016 presidential election, more than half the poll workers surveyed were 61 or older. And the pandemic has forced thousands in that group to make the same decision this election year as Whitney; COVID-19 made the work too risky.
But after a massive nationwide recruiting effort, thousands of younger people, like 31-year-old Allyson Brown of Roslindale, stepped up.
“There's more senior poll workers. That's just what I've always seen in all my polling places,” Brown said. “If they want to do it, great, but it shouldn't just be on their shoulders to do it all. There's no reason for that.”
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