Despite the state reaching record-high COVID-19 case numbers, Mahoning and Trumbull election officials say there won’t be a problem with a shortage of poll workers on Election Day.

While Trumbull is shy 44 Republican poll workers from the state minimum, the county board of elections has 171 workers not affiliated with either party working so they will fill the Republican spots, which is permissible, said Ron Massullo, deputy director of the Trumbull County Board of Elections.

Maggie Sheehan, a secretary of state spokeswoman, also said it’s permissible.

“We’re going to be fully staffed,” Massullo said. “We’re getting a great quality of poll workers, too. We just aren’t going to get enough Republicans as poll workers. But that’s nothing new. The Republican Party doesn’t have enough precinct (committee) people in Warren, Niles, Girard and Hubbard. They can’t recruit precinct people in those cities, and we can’t fill them for all polling locations.”

Thomas McCabe, deputy director of the Mahoning County Board of Elections, said: “Our numbers are fine. We’re very confident with what we have. We always scramble, but this election we have hundreds of names. We’ll be fully staffed. We’re better now than we’ve ever been, and that’s in the middle of a pandemic.”

Secretary of State Frank LaRose had called on county boards of elections to have a goal of 150 percent of the workers for their polling locations to make sure there are enough who can replace those who don’t show up Tuesday.

LaRose’s goal for Trumbull County is 948 poll workers — 474 Democrats and 474 Republicans — with a minimum of 632 — 316 from each party.

The county has 464 Democrats and 272 Republicans committed to work the polling locations as well as 171 people who aren’t affiliated with either party, Massullo said. That means the board is short 44 Republicans from the state minimum, but Massullo said the unaffiliated poll workers will take those spots.

“Our committed number right now is 907, so we’re not that short of the secretary’s goal (of 948),” he said. “We also have 55 more people assigned as additional poll workers in each of our 55 locations. That person has been trained to be a poll worker and will participate in the cleaning process of the stylus, the privacy (voting) booths and every surface before and after every voter. We’re doing that at our early voting center, too.”

Trumbull’s numbers were initially lagging, Massullo said, “because we couldn’t train them fast enough. We used to train 27 poll workers at a time and now because of social distancing, it’s 18. We’re also doing online training. We’re going to be full staffed.”

LaRose’s goal for Mahoning County is 1,144 poll workers — 572 Democrats and 572 Republicans — with a 762 minimum — 381 from each political party.

The county has 906 poll workers trained and ready for Tuesday’s in-person election, McCabe said, with another 40 to 50 ready at a moment’s notice as well as a list of 700 people who have expressed interest in working the polls and could be trained if there was an unexpected emergency.

McCabe said the goal of 150 percent isn’t needed as the county already has more than enough poll workers trained.

“It’s not really at the level of a typical president election because about half will vote by mail and in-person early,” he said. “Adding poll workers is so far down on my priority list because we have so many people. I can’t say we’ve had this many in other presidential elections. It’s great people are stepping up. We have hundreds of names in reserve. We’re not getting people calling off because of COVID.”