‘We’re Rolling With It’: Election Workers Scramble To Adjust To Changing Voting Rules

Andrea Lerner (left), and her husband, Ira Lerner, sift through the mail-in applications at the Voter Registration office in the Lehigh County Government Center in Allentown, Pa.

Hannah Yoon for NPR

Election workers around the country are preparing for what could be one of the most chaotic elections in history. There’s not only a pandemic, but dozens of ongoing legal fights over voting rules. That’s left a lot of things up in the air only weeks before Election Day.

In election offices such as the one in Lehigh County, Pa., workers are trying to deal with the uncertainty.

Phones in this office, staffed by nine full-time employees and some part-timers, have been ringing nonstop, as voters try to check the status of their registrations and absentee ballot requests. Maureen Linkhorst says many callers are looking for reassurance in an election already turned upside down by the threat of disease and political controversy.