Election Judges To Get “Hazardous Duty” Bonus

The County Board approved hazard duty bonus of an extra $50 each for the 100 election judges and other workers due to COVID-19 at the November 3 election. The normal pay for election judges is $100, plus $20 if they attended the training. County Clerks Office employees will receive  time and a half for working after hours, as well as the hazardous duty bonus.

The hazard duty cost  will be paid through a federal CARES Act.

Paul Todd was the only board member to vote against the hazardous duty bonus.

County Clerk Nancy Heseman reported that she divided classes for election judges to four sessions so they could socially distance.

Heseman explained that while the Clerks office is processing ballots as they come in, they are not tabulated until after polls close election day. A voter who requests a ballot by mail cannot vote at the poll. In that scenario, the voter casts a provisional ballot, which will be tabulated two weeks after the election.

While in other years the County Clerk’s office receives about 500 requests for ballots, it has already received 1,400 this year, Heseman said.

Read the full report from the County Board meeting in this week’s issue.