The Cole County Commission on Wednesday voted to bump up the pay of poll workers starting in April, after a request by Cole County Clerk Marvin Register.
Register said this will increase the pay to $105 for supervisors and judges to $90. The pay had been $95 for supervisors and $85 for judges.
Register made the request based on an election state statue that allows the county clerk to raise the pay.
He said the last time their pay was raised was three years ago.
"They keep asking me when they'll see a raise," he told commissioners. "They won't work for free."
Training for new poll workers will be done on May 31.
In other commission business, commissioners heard:
• An update from Jim Casey, Cole County Residential Services executive director, on how things were progressing with the services. The commission appoints members to the services board.
Casey said financially they were in good shape due to the board being conservative in its spending.
The problem they were now having was dealing with the ages of the people they are serving.
Casey said by the time those with Down Syndrome reach age 45 their bodies start to age rapidly. He said by age 60, they have the body of a 80-year-old.