According to a post written by Mark Zuckerberg on Facebook this Friday, Facebook is launching a poll worker recruitment drive. The drive is meant to attract more people for jobs related to polling and voting as there is quite a shortage of employees working in these areas, while the U.S. elections are only less than two months away.
Zuckerberg continued, saying that the shortage could result in hours-long waiting at the poll stations and affect the overall voting participation of people. ''It is estimated that almost half a million poll workers will be needed this year -- especially due to the ongoing Covid pandemic.'', he said.
With the help of the poll worker recruitment drive, people can easily sign up for a poll worker job and serve with their state election authorities. Users over the age of 18 in America will see a message on top of their News Feed that has links to poll worker registration sites in different states.
Moreover, as part of this drive, Facebook will be offering free ad credits to each state election authority so they can recruit poll workers across Facebook. The ads are already being run by California and more states will join in the next few days.
The opportunity is also being provided to Facebook employees in the U.S. who want to opt for the jobs, and they will be given paid time off by the company.
''This recruitment drive is part of Facebook's larger voting information campaign, with the goal to help 4 million people register and vote.'', Zuckerberg wrote. The Voting Information Centre was launched by Facebook last month.
To sign up for the poll worker job, users simply need to visit the Menu bar on Facebook, and find the poll worker section in the Voting Information Centre.
Another initiative that Facebook took earlier this month related to the U.S. elections was saying that it won't take new political advertising in the U.S. in the week before the elections to prevent any interference in the elections.
