A bunch of Poll volunteers were either fired or forced to resigned because of problems they were having with the new machines. The corporate answer: recruit a whole crop of new volunteers (your employees), give them a bunch of training at the last minute, and give them the day off of work (I hope with pay) to go give it their best shot at helping the other hapless victims, I mean voters, to figure out what they themselves just learned.

I wonder what was wrong with the other batch of volunteers?

I need to volunteer as a poll worker so I can learn about this stuff first hand.
Volunteers help cover poll worker gaps

After the September primary dozens of poll workers at various polling locations either resigned or were fired because of the problems relating to operating the new machines. Two months later after the primary and dozens of volunteers helped close the gap left by those poll workers no longer associated with the 2002 election. The new poll workers, who were trained by the state, sacrificed work on Tuesday to make sure that the polls and election ran smoothly...

Two hundred-eighty seven volunteers from thirty-one corporate teams were involved in the program including tams from companies such as Stein Mart, Convergys, and Wachovia.

Here is the full text of the article in case the link goes bad:

http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/2002-11-05/local_volunteers.asp

Volunteers help cover poll worker gaps

By First Coast News Staff

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JACKSONVILLE, FL - Dozens of businesses in Duval County lent their workers to watch the polls and help people with questions during Tuesday's election. In addition the NAACP were also at the polls logging any complaints while the Partners in Democracy kept a close eye on the races.

After the September primary dozens of poll workers at various polling locations either resigned or were fired because of the problems relating to operating the new machines. Two months later after the primary and dozens of volunteers helped close the gap left by those poll workers no longer associated with the 2002 election. The new poll workers, who were trained by the state, sacrificed work on Tuesday to make sure that the polls and election ran smoothly.

Most voters didn't seem to mind the extra help although some thought getting rid of the other workers was unusual. Voter Elizabeth Cobb, for example, believed that, "it's a good thing that they are kind enough to do this but I don't think the other workers were given a fair chance because they were not trained well enough."

Each of the corporate volunteers took a four-hour training class to qualify as a poll volunteer. Two hundred-eighty seven volunteers from thirty-one corporate teams were involved in the program including tams from companies such as Stein Mart, Convergys, and Wachovia.
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