FAYETTEVILLE -- Election officials in both Benton and Washington counties still need poll workers, particularly bilingual ones, as the May 24 primary election draws near.
Jennifer Price, executive director for Washington County's Election Commission, said she has about 300 names on her list of poll workers. Price said she would like to have another 20 overall and 10 to 12 more who are bilingual in both Spanish and Marshallese.
Springdale is home to the largest Marshallese population in the continental United States with more than 12,000 Marshallese residents, according to the Marshallese Educational Initiative.
Price said the county has never had more than seven or eight Marshallese-speaking poll workers in past elections, and the need is growing.
"If we could staff all of our Springdale locations with at least one Marshallese speaker, that would be ideal," Price said. "In those locations where we see the most Marshallese and Hispanic voters, at the Springdale Civic Center, Elmdale Baptist Church and the Archer Learning Center, we could use two or three bilingual poll workers."
Kim Dennison, election coordinator for Benton County's Election Commission, said the need for bilingual poll workers has been growing, particularly in Rogers and Siloam Springs. Dennison said the county has about 300 poll workers. She was able to recruit some Spanish-speaking poll workers for the 2020 election, but some of those have dropped from her list of available workers, Dennison said.
"I had six or seven, which was enough to cover my polling sites in Rogers. It helped tremendously," she said.
Dennison said she would like to find at least six bilingual poll workers for Rogers and another three to work in Siloam Springs.
"Those are the biggest concentrations of Hispanic voters that we've seen," she said. "It would be ideal if we could hire some to work in Bentonville and Bella Vista as well."
Dennison said her current training schedule and the work needed to prepare for the May 24 primary election makes it difficult to actively recruit poll workers. She said she wants to spend some time during the summer months making a concerted effort to find bilingual poll workers.
Price said she will begin poll worker training for the May primary next week, but she will work to get anyone interested, bilingual or not, into a training class.
Some of her bilingual poll workers in recent elections have been student poll workers from local high schools, Price said. Marjorie Hignite, a teacher with the Law and Public Safety Academy at Springdale High School, has worked with Price to find students interested in becoming poll workers.
Hignite said there are 19 or 20 languages spoken at Springdale High School, and she's received all positive responses from the students who volunteered.
"The kids end up really loving it," Hignite said. "They get a chance to serve the community and to interact with all of the people who come to the polls. They have some really interesting conversations with some of the poll workers who are older and have been working in elections for years."
Hignite said the students work as translators, but also serve as full-fledged poll workers after they go through training and become familiar with how elections are run.