The people of Westmoreland County will be investing a lot more in their elections.

On Friday, county commissioners voted to lay out a great deal more cash for the process, but unlike the 2019 purchase of $7.1 million in new voting equipment, this time, the money will not be going into circuits and wires. It will be going into people.

The county hires hundreds of people to work on Election Day. In addition to the judge of elections, there are three to five poll workers for each location. Now multiply that by the 307 polling places, and you have a significant pop-up workforce, even if it is only engaged twice a year.

The increase will take judges of elections from $130 to $235 — $200 for day’s work plus $35 for transporting the final results to the courthouse at the end of the process. Other poll workers will go from their prior $95 paycheck to $175 — the same amount Allegheny County spends on its judges of elections.

The county is also not waiting until November to put that raise in play, making it retroactive to last week’s primary.

A more than 80% increase in a government salary is the kind of thing that would usually prompt a reaction from the people. This is an instance where it shouldn’t.

Aside from the commissioners’ assurance that the raises will not strain the county’s budget, there is also what the increase buys.

It will doubtless make it easier to find poll workers, something which has been a struggle in recent years.

“Every election, it’s getting harder and harder to find individuals to work,” Commissioner Sean Kertes said.

Having enough people to fully staff the polls is how elections are kept convenient and easy for people to access. It is also the best line of defense to keep an election safe from interference or suspicion.

Poll workers are the ones who check identification if needed and match your name against your registration. They make sure you use your machine properly. They shepherd the process from the time each poll opens until it closes. If unexpected challenges arise, they ensure that matters are handled quickly and appropriately.

The machines are not what make the election function. The ballots themselves are only a tool. Americans have voted in the past with just a locked box and a piece of paper. What has not changed in the 245 years we have been doing this is that people have always been the crucial element making elections work — from the casting to the counting and everything in between.

At a time when Americans have looked to their elections with questions — and many of those eyes have been turned on Pennsylvania, based on its pivotal swing state role — there is no better time to invest in the people who get the job done.

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