(Radio Iowa) – Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate is urging Iowans to apply to be poll workers in this fall’s election. Poll workers check in voters on Election Day and hand out ballots. Pate says more than ten-thousand pollworkers are needed across the state for each election. He says while a good number of poll workers have signed up, county auditors tell him they still need more people.  “Some counties perhaps are looking for some more Republicans, some counties are looking for Democrats, because, you know, we require it to be balanced and that’s where people can help us out as well,” Pate says.

Poll workers are paid, but the rate depends on the county. Pate calls poll workers the unsung heroes of our democracy. “They’re your friends and neighbors, they go to the same churches and grocery stores that you do and these are the folks that are really there to make sure you can be comfortable that the election results are accurate and that the process itself is a fair one because that’s what’s so important,” Pate says. “You’ve got to believe in the results of those elections for us to really be able to be successful

Visit pollworker-dot-iowa-dot-gov (www.pollworker.iowa.gov) for more information about signing up to be a poll worker. The General Election on November 8th is 83 days away.

(Reporting by Iowa Public Radio’s Katarina Sostaric)