Strategies for recruiting poll workers

We love poll workers. We have worked the polls ourselves (whenever we’re not in someone else’s polling places, doing research or pilot testing). But we are nerds. How do you find more people like us, who are civic minded, diligent, task-focused folks who will show up on time, and work for the duration?

We hear that recruiting and retaining (good) poll workers is one of your biggest challenges. Over the summer, we got to have several great conversations about election administration — with election officials from California to Colorado to Indiana to Virginia — many of which focused on finding the right people to staff polling places and vote centers. Those folks had some fantastic ideas for sourcing and recruiting poll workers that we want to share with you.

Read on.

Strategies for sourcing and recruiting poll workers

Here are the ideas we heard about in our recent travels:

Snowball recruiting. Get your favorite (you know you have favorites) poll workers to actively recruit friends and family to come work the polls. If you can, offer some incentive for turning out the most new recruits who do the best job. This means that the reward comes after the election when the evaluations are all turned in and counted. The reward can be something as simple as a certificate and as fun as a paper crown. It’s the recognition that is important.

We call it “snowball” recruiting because it starts with just a contact or two. But if everyone who is contacted contacts a few people, pretty soon, that small snowball of contacts rolls down the hill picking up more and more contacts, growing into something that grows on its own.

Adopt-a-polling place. Some jurisdictions recruit non-profits and companies to staff specific polling places. After you recruit the company, they’re responsible for supplying adequate staff. Like any good pot luck, where you encourage each contributor to bring a dish they’re good at as long as everyone doesn’t bring mashed potatoes, you’d want to provide guidance about the jobs and skills you need in a polling place.

Retired or former county workers can make excellent poll workers, especially in vote centers. Often, there are networks of retired county workers that you can tap through email distribution lists or union locals (or both). Those folks may never have worked the polls before, but they often come with skills and practice at doing government business that transfer to the polling place pretty well, including working with computers and other technology.

Future county workers, that is, people who have applied for jobs with the county but haven’t been placed yet, have expressed a desire to work for local government. While their performance in working the polls cannot be used as a condition for hiring them to a full time job, that they’re ready to sign up to work for the county might be a good sign that they’re generally civic-minded folk who’d be willing to work the polls if they were invited in.

High school and college students can be catalyzed for future civic engagement when you invite them to help run a polling place. In some jurisdictions, high schools give extra credit for civics, government, or social studies classes for students who take part. This means you’re recruiting the school — probably the principal, first, and then a counselor and some teachers. Then, you set them up to screen and schedule the kids.

College students might come through clubs, residence hall associations, or work programs. If you find the office of student affairs at the local community college far enough in advance, they can often help you get the word out.

Maybe you have heard about these ideas before. If you have, fantastic! You’re ahead of the game. We’d love to hear your other ideas and share them with the Civic Design audience, too.

Resources

This was originally published in our Civic Designing newsletter. Subscribe on Mailchimp to get election design tips delivered to your mailbox.