Nationally, the average age of poll workers is 72.
By: Linda Seida
LAMBERTVILLE Josephine Nalence, 82, and Jack Lindsley, 95, put in 14-hour days Tuesday.
They knew the drill.
Mrs. Nalence has been doing the same job working the polls for Ward 2 for 50 years. Mr. Lindsley, too, has been on the job a long time for Ward 1. Both of them were stationed at the YMAC on Wilson Street Tuesday.
Part of their job is to check voters in and make sure they’re at the right polling place. If someone needs help, they’re available for that, too.
They reflect the trend nationally where the average age of poll workers is 72, according to the U.S. Election Assistance Commission. And that could present some problems if younger workers aren’t recruited.
The day before Election Day, a shortage of poll workers was growing in Hunterdon County.
Where usually four people would man a polling place, many by Monday were planning on just three because so many workers already had called to say they were ill or otherwise couldn’t make it, according to the county’s poll worker coordinator, Michelle Miller.
"Most of them are senior citizens," Ms. Miller said of the 523 people in the county who were scheduled to work the polls. She noted many seniors dislike driving at night, yet they were scheduled to man polling places until well after dark. Also, she said, the extended hours make it a "pretty long day" for them.
In 2004, the county experimented with allowing students younger than the minimum age of 18 to help out.
"It seemed to work out," Ms. Miller said, although the minimum age remains 18. Poll worker also have to be county residents and registered voters.
Mrs. Nalence, a lifelong city resident, has pretty much seen it all during her tenure.
Before fire destroyed the former Union firehouse on Church Street in the 1970s, the building was used as a polling place. Those were the days of paper ballots, and the process of tallying them could make it an all-nighter for poll workers.
But the fire chief at the time, impatient with the long evening, wanted to bring the firetruck back inside the building. Unwilling to wait any longer, he pulled the engine in, and poll workers were left to scatter, grabbing tables and ballots as they fled, Mrs. Nalence recalled with a laugh.
She also recalls the time a particular couple came to vote. Both husband and wife were so inebriated, she said, "I guess he couldn’t see if he wanted to."
The man went into the booth, then stuck his head right back out, asking for help. But he insisted he wanted only his wife’s help and no one else’s.
Another man, a police officer, wanted to not only cast the one vote he was entitled to, he also wanted to write in another vote for the same candidate.
During the presidential election of John F. Kennedy, Mrs. Nalence recalls poll workers toiling through the night well into the next morning.
"I came in from the election board, finished tallying the ballots, and my husband was leaving on his way to work," she said.
Another election night, she worked alongside a "young fellow" who claimed he didn’t do tallies. Mrs. Nalence put her foot down and made him do his "fair share."
Despite the all-nighters, despite the drinkers and the ones who "don’t tally," she’ll continue doing it. She said she does it "because it’s interesting. It keeps you thinking. I’ve enjoyed every bit of it."

