FALLING WATERS, W.Va. (WDVM) — Through West Virginia is not embroiled in the post-election turmoil we are seeing in other states, one eastern panhandle legislator has an idea for the next elections.

Delegate Larry D. Kump from Berkeley and Morgan County says poll workers now work as long as 16-hour days and they should be compensated more fairly. And as for all the long lines we experienced during early voting and election day this year, Delegate Kump thinks that experience will improve the next time voters go to the polls.

“Berkeley County has had tremendous growth,” says Kump “and the precincts will be organized to create more precincts and that will create more voting stations which will be helpful for the long lines.”

Delegate Kump thinks this exercise of civic duty should be rewarded. Many of the poll workers are senior citizens, he says, and being up before dawn and not returning home until midnight on such an important day takes a special commitment that deserves recognition.

“They don’t do it for the money,” Kump says of poll workers, “but I propose that the Berkeley County Council increase that stipend from $150 to between 2$00 and $250-a-day.”

Besides, says Delegate Kump, except for the long lines — which the county will address in upcoming elections – these poll workers helped make West Virginia’s balloting this fall pretty much flawless.

And Delegate Kump praised the work of the Berkeley County election administration team saying it could be a model for the entire state of West Virginia. The increased pay for poll workers, he says, would be “an investment in democracy.”