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UVA POLL WORKERS HARDER TO FIND-THE DAILY PROGRESS, OCTOBER 25, 2007

Posted: Thursday October 25, 2007

UVa Poll Workers Harder to Find

By Bob Gibson / bgibson@dailyprogress.com | 978-7243
October 25, 2007

Charlottesville voter Registrar Sheri Iachetta said Wednesday that she is having a problem finding election officials to work at the polls on Nov. 6 as a result of a University of Virginia policy that takes poll workers’ paychecks unless an employee uses vacation leave.
Iachetta said seven UVa employees worked at city polling places last Nov. 7, but none chose to work this year, apparently as a result of UVa’s policy to take their 16-hour paycheck for the poll work unless they use annual leave.

She has requested an attorney general’s opinion, citing a 2005 state law that says the state cannot require the use of sick leave or vacation time as a result of anyone’s absence from work due to service at the polls.

“I’m so disappointed in the university,” Iachetta said, noting that it takes away the $175 checks its employees receive for working 16 hours at the polls on election day if the employees are paid for the day at their UVa jobs.

UVa officials said they are following state law and preventing what a veteran official called “double dipping.”

Susan Carkeek, UVa’s new vice president for human resources, said the university’s employees have the option of accepting their UVa pay for the day and forfeiting their poll worker pay while using civil leave or taking paid vacation time and keeping the pay for their poll work.

“Because we don’t require employees to use their sick or vacation time, there is no conflict” with the state law, Carkeek said.

J. Tucker Martin, chief spokesman for Attorney General Robert F. McDonnell, said he could not comment immediately on what state law requires and could not comment on an official request for an attorney general’s opinion.

Larry J. Sabato, director of UVa’s Center for Politics, said UVa and the state should do more to encourage employees to work in the election process.

“I hope that we can work it out in some fashion because it’s good for the university and good for the employee and good for the electoral system” to encourage such civic participation, Sabato said.

If the UVa or state policy is to take away the $10.72 an hour for poll work, “it ought to be changed,” Sabato said. “Working as election officials is great public relations [for the university], and it’s a contribution to the public good.”

Iachetta said UVa employees consider working at the polls and losing their $10.72 an hour for 16 hours work “a hardship for them. It’s not worth the aggravation.”

Jan Cornell, president of the Staff Union at the University of Virginia, said UVa shouldn’t be taking anybody’s checks for poll work or requiring them to take vacation leave if they want those checks.

“I’ve never heard of anybody having to pick between their civil leave and their $10.72 an hour,” Cornell said.

Carkeek said UVa is simply following state policy regarding its employees and “it would be inappropriate for them to be paid twice.

“We have employees across the university who do all kinds of wonderful community service,” she said. “That’s what the university does, and it’s a contribution.

“If the employee wants to keep the check from the polls, they can keep the check from the polls,” Carkeek added. “They would take a day of vacation.”

Fred Hudson, Albemarle County’s Democratic Party chairman, said poll workers are hard to find and UVa should do more to encourage the participation of its employees.

“It’s such a small amount of money and it would be helpful to the people,” Hudson said. “The university is not going to miss it.”

Working the polls on Election Day is hard because of the long hours, he said. “You just don’t find many people who want to do that.”

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UVA POLL WORKERS HARDER TO FIND-THE DAILY PROGRESS, OCTOBER 25, 2007

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