In order to ensure that problems encountered at some polling places during the primary season are not repeated in November, a push is underway to get more African-Americans to volunteer to become poll workers.

Prospective volunteers can contact the Election Assistance Commission or call the toll-free number (1-866-747-1471) for details, as regulations vary from state to state.

Radio personality Tom Joyner is urging young black Americans, especially those who are tech-savvy, to get involved in the process.

Joyner testified on Capitol Hill in April before a House committee and called for Congress to find ways to make voting operations run more smoothly, including providing for more training for poll workers, helping states acquire enough voting and voter identification machines and establishing national voting standards.

The hearing was held before the House Administration Committee, which oversees elections and the day-to-day operations of the House of Representatives.

Joyner described voting patterns and problems in the 2008 presidential primaries and caucuses on a panel that included Gregory T. Moore, executive director of the NAACP National Voter Fund; John Bonifaz, legal director of Voter Action; Cecilia Martinez, executive director of The Reform Institute, and Ken Smukler, president and co-founder of VoterLink Data Systems.

The group described irregularities documented through a voter alert line that “The Tom Joyner Morning Show” and BlackAmericaWeb.com monitored during the primary season, with help from the NAACP National Voter Fund.

“You seldom see anyone younger than 65 working the polls,” Joyner told BlackAmericaWeb.com after the testimony. “There are a lot of young people out there who have enough time to be poll workers and who can probably help voters with technical problems that are going on” with voting machines.

“We really do need a lot more diversity from our volunteers, and number-one is with the electronic equipment,” Rosemary Rodriguez, chairman of the U.S. Election Commission, told BlackAmericaWeb.com.

“We need people who have a comfort level with technology,” Rodriguez said. “There’s not a high level of expertise involved, but it’s a comfort level. That comfort level will help the voters.”

Rodriguez said that based on the turnout during the primary season, election boards should be preparing for an “unprecedented” turnout and that she believes heavy voting traffic, not electronic voting machines, will be the bigger problem.

The commission administers the Help America Vote College Program, which recruits young poll workers and provides information about poll worker requirements in each state, and issues guidebooks and information to local election officials on poll worker recruitment and training.

Since fiscal year 2004, the commission has provided $1.67 million in college program grants.

 “The Help America Vote Act has provided money for equipment, so I hope it’s not the equipment that will cause problems. The volume combined with new laws, like Ohio’s requirement to show ID, is going to take longer, so voters are going to have to know more than in the past,” Rodriguez said. “They’re going to need to know what to bring and having enough poll workers will help the process.”

Joyner said in April that while there wasn’t a lot of evidence during the primary season that anyone was trying to stop African-Americans from voting, problems at polling places create the sense that something sinister is afoot.

“It’s the perception, and the perception is reality,” Joyner said, adding that if people believe they are going to be stopped from voting in some way, they may be discouraged from going to the polls.

“We see now what our next steps are," he said. "Encourage young people to become poll workers (and) encourage people, come Labor Day, to start checking to see if they are registered and know where their poll locations are.”