LEWISTON — With only one week until Election Day, the city needs about a dozen more election workers — and all of them need to be registered Republicans. 

According to City Clerk Kathy Montejo, recent efforts to recruit election clerks resulted in more registered Democrats than Republicans, and the city is looking for about 12 more members of the Republican Party to participate. 

She said the Androscoggin County Republican organization is aware of the shortage. 

By state law, election clerks working polling places must be enrolled as a Democrat or Republican, and an equal number of representatives from each party is required to work at the polls.

Montejo said there is a provision in the law that allows for recruiting election workers from other municipalities within the same county, but she said doing that could take away needed workers elsewhere. She said Lewiston has about 5,000 registered Republicans, and “would love to have those people helping.” 

The city relies on about 130 election workers between its seven polling locations, she said. The city has a pool of “backup” election workers but Montejo said even with that they are still short on numbers. 

“For this election, we have had several of our regular election clerks who are unable to work at this year’s election due to either illness, travel or family situations,” Montejo said Monday. “Election Day is the single largest one-day event that the city coordinates. We need local citizens to dedicate their time to work at the polls, helping their friends, neighbors and fellow Lewiston residents with this important process.” 

She said the law allows for the party split to be off by one, meaning there can be, for example, five Democrats and four Republicans working one location. But she said one less worker means a polling location could be less efficient and create more work for the other clerks come Election Day. 

Election workers are paid $75 per shift, with two shifts available: 6 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. or 2:30 p.m. until close, or about 9 p.m. Training material is also provided. 

Election clerks check in voters, distribute ballots and monitor the voting machines and other related duties.

The election is Tuesday, Nov. 6. 

Interested residents are asked to contact the City Clerk’s Office at 207-513-3124. Election worker application forms are also available on the city’s website at lewistonmaine.gov