DuPage County Having Trouble Finding Bilingual Election Judges
WEST CHICAGO, Ill. (CBS) -- You'd think it would be easy to find people eager to make nearly $200 for one day's relatively easy work.
But CBS 2's Dorothy Tucker reports on one pool of jobs that's not generating much interest.
Carol Marshall with the DuPage Election Commission is so desperate for Spanish-speaking election judges that she was passing out flyers outside an ethnic grocery store in West Chicago.
She has to find them. It's a federal mandate because the county's Hispanic population in DuPage is now 13 percent. In order to fill 120 positions, they need a pool of 500. They only have half of that.
"They are scared," Marshall says when asked why.
Afraid they'll expose others to a government looking to deport illegal immigrants. Maria Salgado is a legal, registered voter, but understands the fear.
"Even if you're legal, maybe your friends, they're not," she says.
Marshall says when the county encounters illegal residents they point them to programs that will help them become citizens. Right now, they're just trying to hire election judges and willing to pay them $160 for the day.
It doesn't take much to become a bilingual election judge.
You must be a registered voter, live in DuPage County and speak both English and Spanish. Click here to learn more.
