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August 1, 2024 is National Recruitment Day for Polling Station Employees

August 1, 2024 is National Recruitment Day for Polling Station Employees

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Vaseline

August 1, 2024 is National Poll Worker Recruitment Day. As key intergovernmental partners in our election process, counties have traditionally been responsible for recruiting, hiring, and training poll workers to staff polling places and help citizens vote each election cycle. In addition, poll workers are increasingly responsible for helping election officials ensure that polling places are safe and secure.

  • Did you know? Provinces are responsible for funding and managing more than 100,000 polling stations, staffed by more than 630,000 poll workers each election cycle. Read more here.

What is National Polling Station Worker Recruitment Day?

National Poll Worker Recruitment Day was established in 2020 by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) to support civic education and encourage individuals to apply to become poll workers. The ability to recruit and retain highly qualified individuals to serve as poll workers is an ongoing need for county election offices and is critical to the administration of federal, state, and local elections.

This year on National Recruitment Day for Polling Station Employees (August 1, 2024) Counties are encouraged to use this day to promote opportunities for poll workers throughout the community.

  • For example: Clarendon County, SC organizes and promotes an open day at their voter registration and election office on National Polling Station Worker Recruitment Day, so that residents can sign up to become poll workers.
  • The EAC’s free National Poll Worker Recruitment Day Toolkit, with customizable community outreach tools and templates, is available here.

How do provinces recruit and train polling station workers?

While retaining and recruiting poll workers is typically a local government responsibility, practices vary to accommodate different state laws and community needs. For example, a majority of states require counties to have parity in the political affiliations of poll workers, while in other states such as Oregon, where elections are conducted exclusively by mail, counties hire temporary workers to help process mail but do not hire poll workers in the traditional sense.

Other examples include:

  • Douglas County, Nebraska uses a “draft” for poll workers, similar to jury service selection in which individuals are randomly selected from a pool of registered voters and required to appear and serve as poll workers. Nebraska is the only state that allows counties to conduct such a draft.
  • The Charleston County, SC The Board of Voter Registration and Elections has created “Day for Democracy,” which gives Charleston County employees the opportunity to work as poll workers without taking paid time off. This also promotes relationship building throughout the county.
  • The Santa Fe County, NM The clerk’s office has set up a mentorship program for new judges who are presiding over elections, or for poll workers who are assigned to oversee their polling stations. As part of their training, they can shadow more experienced judges who are presiding over elections.
  • The Clackamas County, Oregon. The clerk and election board used a grant from the EAC’s Help America Vote Act College Program to Diversity in democracy program to recruit, hire, and train local community college students as poll workers.

How can Congress support counties in recruiting poll workers?

Congress can support counties in recruiting and training poll workers by consistently and adequately providing election administration grants. Help America Vote Act (HAVA) grants have not been consistently funded since they were authorized in 2002. Congress can also make existing federal personnel funds available to county governments for poll worker recruitment activities.

  • More information about HAVA subsidies here.

In addition, the U.S. Congress must also ensure that counties have direct access to these funds and that they can be used at their discretion to meet our most urgent needs. Currently, available federal funds to assist in the administration of elections are only available directly to state election offices, and counties can only access these funds through subgrants.

  • See which states provide their HAVA funds to provinces here.

Poll workers across the county are increasingly responsible for the physical security of polling places, and threats and intimidation of local election offices continue. More funding would help counties upgrade the physical security of polling places and election offices, but NACo also urges Congress to:

  • Introduce legislation to impose appropriate penalties for harassing and threatening election officials
  • Extend protection against doxing to election officials and workers for a specified period before and after the election
  • Support the affordable resources and training available to local officials through the EAC and the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA)

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