STAFFING DEMOCRACY: UNDERSTANDING POLL WORKER RECRUITMENT AND RETENTION IN U.S. ELECTIONS

Abstract

The United States relies on citizens to make elections run smoothly. In fact, over a million individuals choose to participate in the electoral process so citizens may continue to vote in free and fair elections. Unfortunately, the United States has faced a decline in citizen volunteerism, from nonprofit institutions to public causes, such as election work. Recruitment difficulty ebbs and flows, but administrators have reported high levels of recruitment issues for multiple election cycles. Since 2020, COVID-19 and a rise in threats and violence against election workers have exacerbated this problem. This project looks at poll worker recruitment from several angles, including perceived difficulty levels of recruitment by election administrators, issues that administrators claim to increase or decrease the ease of recruitment, and the opinions of those who do the work on Election Day, the poll workers themselves. I determine that partisan parity and strict residency requirements inhibit local election administrators from finding adequate poll workers, that youth programs boost recruitment in non-metro counties, that the long 12- to 14- hour day is problematic for recruitment, that more people are wary of the job due to personal safety concerns, and that many counties are losing their long-time workers due to aging. Poll workers agree that the long day is a problem, but many are incentivized to work the polls out of a sense of community and faith in the system. Poll workers identify areas in which administrators could likely increase recruitment and retention rates based on their personal experiences.