Poll workers + polling places
In-person voting is a cornerstone of the voter experience
Whether it’s at a polling place or a vote center, in-person voting is a cornerstone of the elections process. The folks who run the process — poll workers, election judges, election workers — are a vital extension of your office.
Tools
Poll workers and polling places subtopics
Recruiting poll workers
Security at the polling place
Our work
Project: Poll Worker Training: Assisting voters with disabilities as they mark, verify, and cast their ballot
Accessible voting systems are a key feature in polling places that enable voters with disabilities to vote privately and independently. This report and companion sample training slide presentation are intended to assist election officials as they develop their poll worker training. In addition to ensuring that poll workers know the legal rules for disability voting rights in the polling place, it includes guidance for helping voters while preserving their independence and privacy. (published as NIST VTS 100-2)
- Project Report: Training Poll Workers for Accessible Voting: Supporting voters with disabilities at the polling place
- Customizable Training Deck: Assisting voters with disabilities as they mark, verify, and cast their ballot (pptx download)
Project: What-If guide for poll workers
We worked with the Virginia Department of Elections to create the ClearMark Award winning What If guides. This quick reference guide helps poll workers help voters with unusual problems, much faster than having to flip through an entire manual.
Research: Security insights and issues for poll workers (2014)
We researched what makes poll workers truly effective in their vital role in administering elections securely on Election Day. Security defined from the point of view of poll workers goes beyond “chain of custody.” Security in elections is the processes, procedures, tools, and people put in place to ensure that elections run freely, fairly, and efficiently. We found that training and the attitude of elections staff can have a big impact on how poll workers approach their job.
- Project overview: Poll workers and election integrity
- Report: Security insights and issues for poll workers
- Sample: Polling place layout diagrams of 19 polling places used in 2012-13
Project: Ballot record form (2018)
Accounting for all paper ballots is an important part of poll workers’ jobs in Fairfax, VA. So we worked with the office to update their ballot record form to make it more usable. Improvements included: numbering the steps, rewriting instructions into plain language, and borrowing a layout from tax forms to show which subtotals need to match.