With the primary election just 10 days away, the state Office of Elections said it is "substantially short" of the 2,400 temporary workers needed to run polling places on O'ahu.

As of yesterday, the office needed nearly 900 more people to staff O'ahu's 217 precincts for the Sept. 23 election. If these workers aren't found, voters at polling sites across the island can expect longer waits, said Rex Quidilla, state voter services coordinator.

For years, the Office of Elections has struggled to get people to volunteer to work. But Quidilla said the office this year is "substantially behind where we've been in prior years."

Quidilla said he didn't believe that the shortage will be so severe that some polling places would not be able to open.

"At this point, we're not aware of any precinct that will have to close, but we definitely are sure that some precincts will be short-staffed," he said. "It's fairly obvious that there's going to be some big holes in some of the precincts."

Quidilla said the shortage is widespread across the island. He said some precincts are short of people in leadership roles, while others need people to assist voters.

On election day, he said, people could be moved from one polling site to another to fill a void. Quidilla also said that in the past, the Office of Elections has recruited volunteers from among those people who come to vote.

"It's been done before. People see what's happening at the polling place, and they see that the poll workers are struggling, and they help out. We hope not to resort to that," Quidilla said.

He said he didn't know why fewer people are volunteering to help out.

"It's hard for me to put a finger on it," Quidilla said. "Perhaps this is an indication of the general public interest in the electoral process."

The numbers are down despite an increase in the stipend volunteers receive. Precinct chairmen receive $145, voter-assistance officials $100, and all others a minimum of $85, Quidilla said.

But he acknowledged that the pay "is not commensurate to the effort and service that they provide on election day." Volunteers report at 5:30 in the morning and are expected to work until at least 7 p.m.

"It has to come out of a person's sense of civic duty and sense of community," Quidilla said. "We depend on members of the community. We can't have elections without the people. It's our election."

The problem isn't as severe on the Neighbor Islands, he said. As of yesterday, the Big Island was 30 volunteers shy of the 590 workers needed, Maui needed 66 people to reach the goal of 443 volunteers, and Kaua'i was just five short of the 217 needed, Quidilla said.