Adams County election judges pay to increase

QUINCY (WGEM) - Adams County officials are working to make the voting process smoother for you.

Adams County Board voted Tuesday night to raise the pay for election judges. The Adams County Clerk and Recorder Ryan Niekamp said without election judges, the process doesn’t run as efficiently.

Niekamp said this election has been challenging because it’s the summer and past judges are on vacation. In the meantime, they’ve relied heavily on their student judge program.

He said increasing election judges’ pay is another way they can attract more workers and retain the one’s they already have.

“So in the November 2020 election, we had a grant to help pay for judges. So we were able to give them a bonus of $60 on top of the $120 and we were able to get a few more judges that election. So I’m hoping past practices paid off. I’m hoping that if we do it again here in June, that it’ll pay off again.”

Niekamp said right now they have around 200 election judges. He hopes to increase that to 240, as a back up, in case people get sick or can’t make it.

The County Board Finance Chairman said they’re supplementing this increase with $12,000 in ARPA funds.

If you’d like to become an election judge, Niekamp said you have a couple options.

You go online to find an application on the county clerk’s webpage or through their voter portal online with your login credentials.

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