Elec­tions cost mil­lions of dol­lars to orga­ni­ze and run, but some of the most cru­cial work is per­for­med by low-wage wor­kers, spe­ci­fi­cal­ly poll wor­kers.

Ame­ri­can elec­tions are run local­ly, which means govern­ment offi­cials need to recruit and pay peo­ple to work at voting loca­tions. But the requi­re­men­ts for the jobs, which inclu­de being avai­la­ble and able to work for 12 hours or more on Elec­tion Day, can make it dif­fi­cult to find peo­ple wil­ling to sign up.

“It is a pre­di­ca­ment that pla­gues almo­st eve­ry juri­sdic­tion in the coun­try and it gro­ws wor­se eve­ry year,” begins a 2014 report by the fede­ral Elec­tion Assi­stan­ce Com­mis­sion.

The com­mis­sion found that more than half of all sta­tes had juri­sdic­tions that repor­ted it was either “somewhat” or “very” dif­fi­cult to recruit poll wor­kers for the 2012 elec­tion. Eve­ry one of Louisiana’s pari­shes rated it somewhat dif­fi­cult that year, whi­le more than half of Indiana’s elec­tion-day voters live in coun­ties whe­re it was at lea­st somewhat dif­fi­cult to find poll wor­kers. In 2014, all 120 coun­ties in Ken­tuc­ky repor­ted that recrui­ting poll wor­kers was very dif­fi­cult.

Here’s why it mat­ters: Without enou­gh poll wor­kers, voters can expe­rien­ce lon­ger lines, pol­ling pla­ces can open late, and the­re may not be wor­kers avai­la­ble to tac­kle issues that voters might encoun­ter.

Long wai­ting times are one of the most visi­ble and signi­fi­cant issues that can occur on Elec­tion Day. And althou­gh they can have a num­ber of cau­ses, a lack of poll wor­kers is an impor­tant fac­tor, accor­ding to a stu­dy by the Bren­nan Cen­ter for Justi­ce.

The­re are a few rea­sons why recrui­ting poll wor­kers has got­ten har­der. The increa­sed par­ti­ci­pa­tion of women in the work­for­ce and new tech­no­lo­gy that older Ame­ri­cans can find daun­ting have played a role. Under the Voting Rights Act, some pol­ling pla­ces need to have poll wor­kers with spe­ci­fic lan­gua­ge skills. Then there’s the pay.

The amount of money that poll wor­kers can earn varies, but typi­cal­ly is in the ran­ge of $150-$200 on Elec­tion Day (as in Mia­mi-Dade Coun­ty, Flo­ri­da). Wor­kers can earn addi­tio­nal amoun­ts for atten­ding trai­nings and set­ting up a voting loca­tion. Ala­me­da Coun­ty, in Cali­for­nia, offers high school stu­den­ts $130 for wor­king at the polls on Elec­tion Day.

Even when peo­ple sign up to be poll wor­kers, they don’t always show up. “Many juri­sdic­tions will have hired their full com­ple­ment of neces­sa­ry wor­kers only to see 10–15 per­cent can­cel in the last week and then the­re are the addi­tio­nal ones who just don’t show up on Elec­tion Day,” said Tam­my Patrick, a for­mer fede­ral com­plian­ce offi­cer for the Mari­co­pa Coun­ty Elec­tions Depart­ment in Ari­zo­na who also ser­ved on the Pre­si­den­tial Com­mis­sion on Elec­tion Admi­ni­stra­tion.

Many poll wor­kers are deca­des out of high school, howe­ver. Becau­se reti­rees often have the time (and are among the most relia­ble voters), they com­pri­se a lar­ge seg­ment of poll wor­kers in many pla­ces. Half of Oklahoma’s poll wor­kers in 2014 were 71 years or older, accor­ding to the elec­tion commission’s sur­vey. In 2012, two-thirds of Wiscon­sin poll wor­kers were at lea­st 61 years old.

Dou­glas Coun­ty, Nebra­ska, which con­tains Oma­ha, has taken a very inte­re­sting approach. Some poll wor­kers the­re are draf­ted from the list of regi­ste­red voters, much like for jury duty, and once selec­ted must work in four elec­tions. The only ways to avoid this are sup­ply­ing a volun­teer in your pla­ce or can­ce­ling your voter regi­stra­tion.