ANN ARBOR (AP) — Nearly half of local officials in Michigan’s large municipalities report struggling to find enough people with the necessary skills to work at the polls on Election Day.
The figure is included in a survey of more than 1,100 cities and townships released by the University of Michigan’s Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy.
When smaller municipalities are included, the number of officials reporting trouble recruiting skilled poll workers is almost 30 percent.
Nine in 10 officials are “very confident” that their jurisdictions can administer elections accurately.
Two-thirds of local officials support legislation to let voters cast an absentee ballot without needing an excuse.
The same number of respondents opposes allowing same-day voter registration on Election Day.
- Posted November 07, 2017
- Tweet This | Share on Facebook
Survey: Michigan communities struggle to find poll workers

headlines Macomb
- Students star in courthouse competition
- Governor celebrates Arab American Heritage Month
- Federal court permanently shuts down Detroit tax preparers
- Nessel joins AG coalition to sue federal HHS, Sec. Kennedy to overturn more than $370 million in public health grant cuts in Michigan
- Supreme Court seems likely to side with Catholic Charities in religious-rights case
headlines National
- ACLU and BigLaw firm use ‘Orange is the New Black’ in hashtag effort to promote NY jail reform
- Judge accused of using ‘game or jail’ tactic, asserting abuse victims get ‘Super Bowl’ neurochemicals
- Prosecutor gets suspension for invading jury’s ‘inner sanctum’
- Lateral hiring bounced back in 2024, especially for associates in BigLaw, new NALP report says
- Refugee ban can’t be enforced against those who received conditional approval, 9th Circuit says
- ABA, more than 50 bar associations condemn ‘government actions that seek to twist the scales of justice’