THE Electoral Office of Jamaica (EOJ) is seeking to recruit 3,000 workers to replace those who have opted out of serving on election day, as well as computer literate persons who will be needed to operate the Electronic Voter Identification and Ballot Identification System (EVIBIS) in the upcoming general elections.

Takeese Gilpin-Allen, public education officer at the EOJ, said some persons who were already trained have opted out, leaving a number of vacant positions.

“It is hard when we train them and we have to lose them,” Gilpin-Allen said. “.The longer the election takes to be called we are going to keep having this problem,” she added.

Two months ago, Danville Walker, the director of elections, said the longer it took for the election date to be announced, the more expensive it would be for the Electoral Office to continue to train workers required.

He said, however, that funding was not a problem as the EOJ’s budget of $816 million had been approved.

The EVIBIS is expected to be available at about 800 polling stations in the upcoming general elections, due by October this year.

Gilpin-Allen said the EOJ has already recruited and trained almost 20,000 persons and was evaluating the current pool of workers available.

“We wanted to have a reservoir of persons so we can choose the best ones to work in the election,” she said.

Such persons, the EOJ public education officer said, have been trained and re-trained and have participated in a series of simulations where they were tested to see how they would operate under election conditions.

In weekend newspaper ads, the EOJ requested applications from persons with at least one year tertiary education or intermediate level computer skills.

The ads, which made a special appeal to teachers and civil servants, promised an attractive compensation package.

“This time we are hoping to get people who are already computer literate as it will make them easier to be trained,” Gilpin-Allen said.