Government workers and New York National Guard units could be used to help administer elections in some areas of the state, Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Monday said. 

But local elections officials at the same time need to tell state officials what resources are needed. 

"OK, what do you need?" Cuomo said in a conference call. "And you will get it. But you have to be organized enough to tell us what you need."

The governor's comments come as local and state elections officials have applied for grants from charitable organizations to comply with the costs of new state requirements. One of those charities is backed by funding from Mark Zuckerberg, the founder and CEO of Facebook. 

Conducting an election during a pandemic is expected to bring a range of challenges for boards of elections this year, including a sharp increase in the number of people voting by absentee ballot in order to avoid interacting with people at polling locations. 

Poll workers themselves are also older, retired people and there have been calls this year for younger people to apply for poll worker jobs on Election Day and during early voting. 

Cuomo said, however, the state can make personnel available if they are told there's a need to do so.

"We can use National Guard personnel to help, we can use other state employees to help," he said. "You have a lot of local government employees right now who because of COVID, the agencies are doing less work."

He added, "They have to tell us what they need and they have to be organized."