There was a nice story today on All Things Considered about the toll that election reforms and election complexity are taking on the ranks of poll workers. The blurb for the story says:

States around the country are trying to find and train enough poll-workers to staff the Nov. 7 midterm elections. The increasing complexity of voting procedures and equipment makes it harder to recruit. Maryland and Ohio are providing refresher courses after problems in their primaries were attributed in part to poll-workers.

There is interesting data on poll workers in the ESI report on Cuyahoga County and we are currently doing research on poll workers around the country in the 2006 elections. One thing that is clear: training is key to making sure poll workers are confident that they are doing their job effectively.