Poll Worker Resources for Election Officials

Poll Worker Recruitment Toolkits and Resources

Poll Workers Helping Americans Vote Campaign

The U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) has launched a new initiative that offers jurisdictions an opportunity to join in a national effort to recognize poll workers for the critical role they play in Helping Americans Vote.

As a part of this effort, the EAC has created a customizable social media toolkit to raise awareness and invite your jurisdiction to participate in the Poll Workers Helping Americans Vote campaign.

The customizable graphics cater to X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram, but the graphics and your messaging can be used for emails, websites, flyers, posters, and other communications.

Poll Workers Helping Americans Vote Campaign Toolkit:

What–Why-How Document (.pdf)
Social Media Template (Customizable Graphics & Instructions) (.ppt)
Press Release Template (.pdf)
Press Release Template (.docx)

How can you participate? Your jurisdiction is invited to send in a group poll worker photograph for potential inclusion in what will be an ongoing EAC Poll Workers Helping Americans Vote social media campaign. The What–Why-How Document in the toolkit explains it all and provides an EAC contact for questions.

National Poll Worker Recruitment Day Toolkit

"National Poll Worker Recruitment Day. August 1, 2024." Image of two poll workers against blue background. EAC seal in bottom right.

National Poll Worker Recruitment Day is a national day of action established by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) in 2020 to inspire civic engagement and encourage people to sign up to become a poll worker. On August 1, 2024, National Poll Worker Recruitment Day aims to address the continued need for poll workers to sign up ahead of the general election in November to Help America Vote and strengthen our democracy.

The EAC has created a highly customizable social media toolkit to assist election officials with poll worker recruitment efforts. You will find customizable social media graphics, video templates, outreach/communication templates, and much more!

National Poll Worker Recruitment Day Toolkit

Resource files and Instructions on how to customize the toolkit graphics in PowerPoint:

One of the many responsibilities election officials have on their list of duties us the recruitment and training of poll workers. The 2022 Election Administration and Voting Survey (EAVS) reports that 54.1% of jurisdictions had a “difficult” or “very difficult” time recruiting poll workers. The data also state that the average poll worker is aged 61 and older and that 16.7% percentage of poll workers were first time workers, further emphasizing the importance that ongoing recruitment and training is for election officials. The EAC has many resources to support election officials in this important duty.

Poll Worker Recruitment Video Series: Vice Chair Donald Palmer leads discussions with election leaders from across the country on poll worker mentorship, innovations in recruitment, and the commitment of long-serving poll workers to their community. In this series, he spoke with Indiana Secretary of State Diego Morales; Sherry Poland, Director of the Hamilton County Board of Elections in Ohio; Katharine Clark, Santa Fe County Clerk in New Mexico; and Marie Esche, a 100-year-old poll worker from Pasco County, Florida.

Best Practices for Poll Workers

The EAC’s 2016 manual entitled Election Worker Successful Practices: Recruitment, Training and Retention explores the methods used by election offices to recruit, train, and retain poll workers, including appealing to high school and college students, and engaging businesses and civic organizations.

Election officials can use the EAC’s Sample Poll Worker Training Survey to collect feedback from poll workers on training content, methods, and more. Data collected from the survey can be used to enhance training or identify areas of focus for future trainings.

The EAC 2023 Resource, State by State Compendium: Election Worker Laws and Statutes, is a compilation of state laws, regulations, and information on poll worker requirements. It includes information on age requirements and exceptions, programs for high school and college student poll workers, how much poll workers are paid, and other requirements and prohibitions.

In a 2020 blog and video, Utilizing the National Guard for Election Day (Wisconsin), EAC Vice Chairman Donald Palmer was joined by Meagan Wolfe (Wisconsin Election Commission Administrator) and Brigadier General Robyn Blader (Wisconsin National Guard) to discuss how they worked together to utilize the National Guard for Election Day this spring. This blog includes some key considerations Ms. Wolfe and Brigadier General Blader shared for election administrators and National Guard members as they plan for upcoming elections, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. Wisconsin National Guard members were trained and served as poll workers in two elections – the April 7th general election and the May 12th special congressional election in which 2,500 and 160 members participated respectively.

During the 2020 Election Summit, EAC Commissioner Don Palmer moderated a panel, 2020 Election Summit, Panel 4: Overcoming Election Day and Poll Worker Challenges, with local election officials from five states, who discussed strategies for poll worker recruitment and managing change at the polling place.

The EAC also recognizes, annually, innovative practices in the recruitment, retaining and training of poll workers as one category of our “Clearinghouse Awards” or “Clearies”. Winners from the past few years include:

Poll Worker Quick Tips: Recruitment

Today’s election work force participates not only in Election Day precincts, but vote centers, early voting, absentee and early voting boards, recount boards, and post-election audits. The skill sets needed to carry out these activities with confidence and transparency requires election administrators to use every tool at their disposal in recruiting these essential workers. The Poll Worker Quick Tips: Recruitment guide is intended to provide election officials with sample suggestions to support poll worker recruitment efforts.

A Guidebook for Recruiting College Poll Workers

The updated Guidebook for Recruiting College Poll Workers, in conjunction with the Help America Vote College Poll Worker Grant Program, is a collection of practices that have been successful in recruiting, training, and retaining college students to serve as poll workers.

This guidebook was developed to help address this congressional directive and is the result of a 17-month applied research study commissioned by the EAC. It was implemented by Cleveland State University with input from a project working group and three pilot project sites that were partnerships between local colleges and universities and local election offices. This guidebook describes the strengths these energetic and enthusiastic young voters bring to the task and the field-tested strategies for designing and running a college poll worker program. It also lists the challenges inherent in working with college students.

Read the full guidebook.

EAVS Data on Poll Workers

For those interested in data about poll worker recruitment, the EAVS (reports and data) collects jurisdiction-by-jurisdiction data on many election administration topics, including poll workers. Data collected includes the number of poll workers deployed, age of poll workers, and ease of recruiting poll workers. In addition, the EAVS comprehensive reports that summarize this data every two years, the EAC published an EAVS Deep Dive on Poll Workers and Polling Places in 2017, which takes a closer look at 2016 EAVS data on poll workers and polling places.

About National Poll Worker Recruitment Day and Help America Vote Day

National Poll Worker Recruitment Day is a national awareness day established by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission to encourage people to help America vote by serving as poll workers. As a part of the agency's ongoing commitment to this important issue, the EAC also created Help America Vote in 2022 to address the needs of election officials.

By encouraging more people to become poll workers in their communities, National Poll Worker Recruitment Day and Help America Vote Day aim to address the critical shortage of poll workers, strengthen our democracy, inspire greater civic engagement and volunteerism, and help ensure free and fair elections in November and beyond.