Election Specialist

Position Description

About Pennington County: We provide quality public services, as determined by law and citizen needs, through innovative leadership and the teamwork of its people, officials, and employees.

Our Employee Value Proposition - Comprehensive Benefits Package:
South Dakota Retirement Plan and Supplemental Retirement Plan, eleven paid holidays, generous vacation and sick leave, emergency leave, company paid life insurance, flexible scheduling (4 - 10 hour days, remote work options), employee assistance program, and competitive health, dental, and vision insurance.

Essential Functions:
Under the supervision of the Election Supervisor assists in planning and administering elections, including develops and maintains strategic policies and procedures to ensure compliance with State and Federal election laws. Handles public information requests related to elections.

Position Functions

Essential Functions:

• Research and keep current with laws and administrative rules relating to elections.
• Develop and maintain procedure manuals for all election activity.
• Develop procedures and forms for chain of custody of election supplies and ballots.
• Coordinate staff hiring, training, and scheduling for assisting with election duties.
• Maintain voter registration records and generate reports as necessary
• Ensure all required forms are in format required by administrative rules
• Develop and maintain forms and log documents used for compliance
• Set up all stations for absentee voting to take place in the Auditor’s Office.
• Administer the absentee voting process by entering absentee requests and process requests for ballots
• Coordinate all election supplies and oversee the distribution of supplies to poll workers
• Assist the Election Supervisor with any and all duties necessary to conduct elections
• Process and record Freedom of Information Requests for County documents
• Perform related duties as assigned by supervisor
• Maintain compliance with all company policies and procedures

• Process daily mail.
• Disseminate bankruptcy and lawsuit paperwork. Maintain lawsuit file.
• Order/inventory of election and regular office supplies.
• Mail checks/remittances to vendors.

Qualifications

Experience and/or Education Preferred:

• Bachelor’s degree in business administration required
• Three years of experience in researching laws, policy and/or statutory compliance, including demonstrated experience in creating written procedures
• Three or more years’ of highly effective administrative skills required
• Knowledge of state, local and federal election processes preferred
• Three or more years’ of elections experience preferred
• Equivalent combination of education and experience will be considered
• Ability to operate standard office equipment and computers with in-depth knowledge of Microsoft Office
• Experience with creating presentations preferred.

Physical Requirements:

• Ability to safely and successfully perform the essential position functions consistent with the ADA, FMLA, and other federal, state and local standards, including meeting qualitative and quantitative productivity standards
• Ability to maintain regular, punctual attendance consistent with the ADA, FMLA, and other federal, state and local standards
• This position frequently remains stationary for long periods of time and needs to occasionally move about inside the office to access file cabinets, office machinery, etc.
• Constantly operates a computer and other office productivity machinery such as a calculator, copy machine and printer.
• Must be able to move up to 20 pounds unassisted, and move 40 pounds with assistance.
• Must be able to communicate clearly and effectively on telephone, in-person and in writing.

Additional Information

Work Environment

• Most work is performed indoors in an office where noise and interruptions often occur.
• Overtime hours may be required to meet deadlines, especially during election cycles.
• Some travel may be required for training and delivering of supplies to polling locations.
• Occasional work in warehouse like setting for the purpose of loading election supplies.