While some received their checks, presumably via redirected mail, Butler County Board of Elections Deputy Director Jocelyn Bucaro said 13 poll workers had to come in to the office and sign an affidavit to say they did not receive a check and verify their correct address.
“We first became aware that there was going to be a delay in their payroll about two weeks after we sent the payroll to the auditor’s office,” she said.
Bucaro said the final four unpaid poll workers had checks sent Tuesday morning to their correct addresses — three months after the spring partisan election.
John Washburn, one of the last four poll workers to be paid for the May election, said the money “is not critically important” for him, but he said nobody likes to have to wait on something. He said his main complaint is he had to go to the elections office twice to get the issue settled.
“For me it’s more of an inconvenience,” said Washburn, of Liberty Twp. “I don’t mind helping out. I already told them I’d help this fall.”
Butler County Auditor Roger Reynolds said his office used the file sent on May 19 by the elections office and cut checks the following week, and any incorrect addresses came from the elections office.
Bucaro said she and her staff will investigate to see if the problem originated at their end. She said poll workers that worked in both the May primary and November 2013 general elections received checks following each election with no problems.
Reynolds said any confusion and problems will be eliminated and corrected for the November election. Officials from the two county offices meet next week to talk about a solution to the problem.
“With the new system (that was implemented in January), we’re going to alleviate that for the fall election, and we’re going to direct deposit everyone’s pay,” he said. “It’s going to be more efficient and save costs.”
Cutting paper checks for 1,077 people costs a few thousand dollars between the manpower, cutting the paper checks and mailing them out.
Washburn said the plan for a direct deposit paycheck is likely to be better, but he said the county should be following up to determine whether everyone was paid rather than waiting for the poll workers to call in to complain.
Bucaro hopes this will not affect recruitment efforts for poll workers in the Nov. 4 general election. For the fall election, more than 1,200 people will be needed to work Election Day. About 200 to 300 above that total will be needed to be trained to serve as backups. All 1,400 to 1,500 people will be paid for training, but those working on Election Day will receive $160. Another 92 location managers will be paid $500.
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