Tulsa County Election Board Trains New Poll Workers

The Tulsa County Election Board has hired new precinct officials to fill a gap they estimated at 350 people last month.

A wave of precinct officials quitting during the pandemic created shortages that could have led to precinct consolidations or last minute fill-ins for the jobs.

New recruits packed the lobby of the Election Board Tuesday for hands-on training to be ready for the election Nov. 8th.

Sheila Hayden and Nancy Remus are retired teachers who decided to train and work precincts in Broken Arrow.

“This election means a lot to us. We think it's very important and we wanted to do something proactive” said Remus. After finishing training, Hayden said “I have every confidence that in Oklahoma everything is being done to make sure this is a free and fair election.”

Secretary Freeman was encouraged by the response.

“We had a great outpouring of support, people started signing up. I really had no idea we would get that many people that quickly.”

Each new precinct worker gets one full day of in person training and the inspector, who oversees the precinct, gets more training online.

They learn the law and how to work the machines, and the election board is available by phone if there's a problem.

“There's a lot to learn and we try to give them as much training as we can before we let 'em loose on election day” said Freeman.