Politics

Orange County Elections Supervisor looking for poll workers who speak Spanish

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — We’re just over a month away from the primary election, and the Orange County Supervisor of Elections Office needs help.

They’re still looking for poll workers who speak Spanish.

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The need grows with more Hispanics moving to Central Florida every day.

We’ve had thousands of Spanish speakers from central and south America move to Central Florida and register to vote the past few years.

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While the ballot is in both languages, the supervisor wants people to get a full grasp of what they’re doing when they cast their ballot.

“We need this force for every election,” said Veronica Lucha with Mi Vecino.

Photos: Orange County Elections Supervisor looking for poll workers who speak Spanish

Lucha is on a mission. She runs the non-profit Mi Vecino and has helped more than 20,000 people across central and south Florida get registered to vote.

Lucha recognizes there is a language barrier on election day, that many Hispanics try to solve by bringing family members with them.

“Help them with issues for the ballot because maybe using Google or translate or person in the family that speaks English and Spanish,” Lucha said.

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Data from the supervisor of elections office shows, out of 851,000 registered voters in Orange County, 219,000 are Hispanic.

Compare that to 2020′s primary, when out of 822,000, 201,000 registered voters were Hispanic.

It’s partly why the county is looking at another solution.

“One of the things you can never have enough of are poll workers who work on Election Day and to serve our community we need bilingual ones,” said Orange County Supervisor of Elections Bill Cowles.

Cowles wants to get at least 258 Spanish-speaking poll workers, that way there’s one at each polling location for those who have questions about their ballot.

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“The ballots are bilingual for everybody but also that checking in process we want to have someone there to assist them,” Cowles said.

Election workers have also added more security measures this year.

Click here for more information about becoming a poll worker in Orange County.

See more in the video above.

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