While there are numerous advantages to recruiting high school and college students as poll workers, they currently represent only a tiny portion of the election workforce. During the 2022 midterm elections, just 4.2% of poll workers were between the ages of 18 and 25, and 1.7% were under 18 years old, according to the 2022 Election Administration and Voting Survey (EAVS).
In part one of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC)’s Poll Worker Recruitment blog series, learn how these demographics can help fill labor gaps from election officials who have successfully partnered with local schools and higher education organizations.
According to Boris Brajkovic, Election Director, Montgomery County Board of Elections, Maryland, high school students comprised nearly 10% of the county’s election workers in 2022. “While nationally, the average of election workers could be 60 or 61 years of age, it was 54 for Montgomery County,” said Mr. Brajkovic. “And that is a direct result of a very robust signature program of high school students' involvement.”
Mr. Brajkovic added that the program benefits students in many ways, “whether they receive the student service-learning hours or stipend as they go forward, educate them because they go through our training. We inspire potential election workers for the years to come.”
According to Caryn Scheel, the Youth Engagement Coordinator at Minneapolis Elections & Voter Services, there are several benefits to recruiting students as poll workers. For example, many students have a wealth of technological knowledge and bilingual language skills and may have parents that will join their students in working the polls. It also helps build a lifelong commitment to and understanding the voting process as they enter adulthood.
To help create a successful relationship, Ms. Scheel says the Minneapolis student judge program does not wait until right before Election Day. “We like to start building those relationships in the off-season when we have more time, talking about what we can offer and how we can help schools with what they are doing already. I think schools are under a lot of pressure, and sometimes it can be one more thing that we are adding to them.”
Rachael V. Cobb, Ph.D., Associate Professor and Chair, Political Science & Legal Studies at Suffolk University, runs the university’s vote ambassador program, which received funding in 2010 from the EAC’s Help America Vote Act (HAVA) College Program. While she initially offered incentives to faculty to incorporate college poll working programs into classes, she found this was not as effective as she would have liked. “It's not an obvious thing to them to incorporate this into their classes, and it is not an obvious area that they necessarily want to do,” said Dr. Cobb. “So I actually think the money is better spent on peers, and peer recruiters.”
Dr. Cobb shifted her approach from using faculty to students. “We have a very successful program at Suffolk of vote ambassadors where students go to classes, and they spend 15 minutes in different people's classes doing recruitment and mobilizing nonpartisan mobilization to register students to vote,” said Dr. Cobb. “I think a very similar program can happen and that peer-to-peer experience is very effective.”
While she mostly depends on students to run the program, grant money would be helpful for those looking to create similar programs at other universities to fund a key point person to be responsible for relationship building with local election offices on behalf of the school.
The EAC has distributed over $2.3 million to colleges and nonprofits to recruit, train, and support students serving as poll workers. In Fiscal Year 2023, the EAC received $1 million in funding for the HAVA College Poll Worker Grant Program for the first time since 2010. This competitive grant program was established in 2004 and has since been renewed to support communities in advance of the 2024 election year.
“The purpose of the program is threefold,” said Risa Garza, the EAC’s Interim Director of Grants. “Primarily, the program encourages college students to assist in the administration of elections by serving as nonpartisan poll workers. Secondly, the program encourages college students to become cognizant of the elections process and civic education. And finally, it encourages state and local governments to use the services of participants in this program.”
The EAC has developed an applicant toolkit to support the application process and provide guidance for interested applicants. The toolkit will be available on the EAC website when the grant competition opens this fall. During the application period, the EAC grants office will also provide training and technical assistance sessions and up-to-date program information, including FAQs on our website.
“We also encourage applicants to utilize the EAC's resources on poll worker recruitment and training,” said Ms. Garza. “This includes the agency's poll worker guidebook for recruiting poll workers in executing their programs.”
The third edition of the Guidebook for Recruiting College Poll Workers is designed for both local election officials and college and university staff and faculty who want to work together to formulate partnerships to recruit and train college students to serve as poll workers in the jurisdictions where they attend school. It emphasizes finding a campus champion and partnering with that individual to address college student poll workers' unique needs.
In addition to this guide, you can learn more about poll worker recruitment best practices by watching the recording of the EAC’s Poll Worker Recruitment Public Discussion Roundtable and the Public Meeting on Voter Education and Engagement on the EAC’s YouTube Channel. Election officials can also participate in National Poll Worker Recruitment Day on August 23, 2023, using the EAC’s customizable social media toolkit on HelpAmericaVote.gov.