Recent Surge in Voter Registration Highlights the Need for More Poll Workers

A surge in voter registrations following President Joe Biden’s withdrawal from the 2024 race is putting a spotlight on the need for poll workers — a temporary workforce that will be critical to running a smooth election on November 5.

Efforts to recruit poll workers also come at a time of heightened focus on the safety of election administrators and others stationed at polling precincts and ballot counting sites.

Civic engagement groups and election officials have been encouraging more everyday people to sign up to be poll workers. The U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC), a federal agency that helps oversee elections issues, has deemed Thursday as National Poll Worker Recruitment Day for a collective day of action.

“The 2024 elections landscape has changed dramatically on a weekly, daily and sometimes hourly basis for the last month, and likely will continue to in the coming weeks,” said Marta Hanson with Power the Polls, a nonpartisan organization that helps recruit poll workers. “The one thing that will stay consistent, and the one thing that will stay true, is the need for the election itself to run smoothly.”

At least 142,000 people have registered to vote since Biden’s July 21 exit, according to Vote.org, an organization that tracks get-out-the-vote efforts. The group estimates voters between the ages of 18 and 34 account for more than 80 percent of the new registrations.

More than 775,000 poll workers assisted voters during the 2020 election, though Hanson said it takes about 1 million workers nationwide to staff a presidential election when taking into account the need for backup. It’s unclear how the jump in registered voters could impact the overall recruitment of poll workers, though some organizers say they’ve seen a spike in interest to sign up in recent weeks. The expansion of mail-in voting in some states since the 2020 election could also change that calculus of poll worker needs.

Power the Polls, which launched in 2020, says it recruited over 700,000 new potential poll workers during the last presidential election, and they aim to recruit more this cycle. Many poll workers are paid, though the scope of compensation and responsibilities varies by state.

Power the Polls said it’s tracking more than 1,835 jurisdictions — which includes towns and counties — in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The organization estimates about 40 percent of those jurisdictions have “an urgent need” for new poll workers.

Hanson said the role of poll workers — both during early voting and Election Day — cannot be overstated. They not only greet voters and check them in at polling sites, they at times offer technical support. Poll workers also ensure local protocols are followed at polling sites.

“Poll workers are the face of our democracy,” said Hanson, who serves as national program manager for the organization. “Poll workers are the ones who impact what every single voters’ experience at the polls actually will be.”

Poll workers can also help people with translation services. Crystal Echo Hawk is the founder and chief executive of IllumiNative, a Native woman-led racial and social justice organization. She said bilingual poll workers can assist those who speak Indigenous languages to ensure they fully understand the voting process.

“This hands-on support can make a significant difference in overcoming the barriers that many Native voters face,” she said in an email.

Lisa Posthumus Lyons helps oversee elections as Kent County Clerk in western Michigan. She said sign-ups for election inspectors, the state’s formal title for poll workers, is going well this year.

“It’s not this revolving door of election inspectors,” Lyons said. “They’re dedicated cycle after cycle. … And on my end, making sure that they feel like they’re adequately trained and prepared to do that job, I think that’s helpful.”

Over the past four years, Lyons said she has worked to educate her community about the election process through community events, presentations and panels. She has provided opportunities for the public to sit in on elections equipment testing and other forms of audits.

The result, according to Lyons, has been more public trust in the process. That has made it easier for people to sign up to be poll workers and to retain the workforce in subsequent elections.

“These efforts that we’ve put in place — education, transparency and participation efforts — I think that’s really contributed to making our citizens feel like they have a role to play in their elections,” she said.

Melanie Ryska, the city clerk for Sterling Heights, a Detroit suburb, said she has hired and trained about 250 people for the August 6 primary. She said recruitment efforts are ongoing for the general election, and she called the process “an undertaking.” She also encouraged bilingual workers in her community to sign up to be poll workers to help provide translation services.

“The recruitment is a lot of word-of-mouth from the current election inspectors,” she said, noting that her mom, her spouse and some of her teenage children have helped with elections recently. “Elections are a family affair.”

The power of the role comes as full-time election officials — a separate workforce that does elections planning work year-round — continue to face forms of harassment and threats of violence amid a heightened political climate that includes former President Donald Trump spreading debunked conspiracies about election fraud. Aside from repeating lies about the 2020 election, he has begun to speculate without evidence that there will be cheating in this year’s election.

A survey from the Brennan Center for Justice, a progressive public policy institute, released earlier this year concluded that reports of threats, harassment and abuse remain high for election officials. Ninety-two percent surveyed also said they have taken “critical steps” to increase security for voters, election workers and election infrastructure.

The job of a poll worker is also separate from so-called poll observers or watchers who are sometimes hired by major political parties to monitor activity at polling sites. In April, the Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee announced a plan to disperse poll watchers around the country.

Jocelyn Benson, the Michigan secretary of state, has become a national voice in advocating for more federal support of election workers, including money. She has experienced multiple threats to her safety over the course of her state work.

Benson said there’s been an evolution in challenges to election administration.

“The story of the 2024 election will be one of democracy. It will be one in which our operations will hold, in spite of an increased and more sophisticated coordinated effort to either undermine the operations or sow seeds of doubt about their integrity,” she told a group of journalists on Monday at an event in Detroit hosted by the National Press Foundation, a nonprofit journalism training organization. “And we will continue to see, I believe, all candidates talk about democracy, in various different ways.”

Women outnumber men as poll workers by about two to one, another example of the pivotal role that women play in various election roles, including year-round administration.

Organizers and voting rights groups have emphasized that being a poll worker is an incredibly safe job, with few reported instances of problems in recent years. Still, the 2024 presidential election will mark the first since the January 6, 2021, insurrection in the U.S. Capitol, an event that involved hundreds of people challenging the outcome of the 2020 election.

“One of the things we don’t know yet is if poll worker recruitment is going to suffer in this new environment,” said David Becker, an election law expert and executive director of the Center for Election Innovation & Research (CEIR), a group founded in 2016 to restore trust in elections. “I’m talking to some election officials who say they’re doing pretty well and others who are not … there are some legitimate concerns that poll workers might have.”

Becker said it’s not surprising that there may be some concern about safety following the high-profile cases of Ruby Freeman and her daughter, Wandrea “Shaye” Moss, two poll workers in Fulton County, Georgia, who experienced threats after the 2020 election. But he also emphasized context.

“If you look at the totality of being a poll worker throughout the nation, we have very, very few instances like that,” he said, noting increased investments in more physical security around facilities and cybersecurity around the protection of information. “And election officials are more attuned to protecting their staff and their poll workers and volunteers than ever before.”

To sign up to be a poll worker, visit Power the Polls’ website.

Additional information about how and where to vote is available at eac.gov/vote.