Key facts about U.S. poll workers

As millions of Americans head to the polls this fall, they’ll entrust their ballots with local poll workers. But what exactly these poll workers do – and the requirements they must meet to assume this role – varies widely by state and county.

Overall, U.S. registered voters tend to trust poll workers. About nine-in-ten registered voters said in an October 2022 Pew Research Center survey that they were at least somewhat confident that poll workers in their community would do a good job during that year’s midterm elections. In fact, voters were more likely to express confidence that year in poll workers than in state officials who run elections (89% vs. 77%).

Majorities of registered voters in both parties expressed at least some confidence in poll workers in 2022. But voters who supported Democratic candidates were much more likely than Republican backers to say they were very confident (60% vs. 39%). The same pattern appeared when voters were asked about state election officials in 2022.

As National Poll Worker Recruitment Day approaches on Aug. 1, here are key facts about poll workers in the United States, including:

• What election workers do
• How many poll workers usually help in general elections
• Which states have the most workers per polling site
• Compensation
• State requirements for poll workers
• Recruitment challenges

What do U.S. election workers do?

There are three types of election staff, but poll workers account for the bulk of them:

• Poll workers are temporarily recruited to perform various duties on Election Day and the lead-up to it. Their duties can include setting up voting equipment, greeting or checking in voters, verifying voter IDs and registration, serving as language interpreters, counting ballots, and more. Poll workers hold different titles – such as election clerk, election judge, inspector, booth worker, warden or commissioner – depending on the state or county.
  
  
• Election officials are elected, appointed or otherwise hired to carry out specialized activities like recruiting and training poll workers and maintaining voter rolls. They work year-round, and many have additional duties beyond election administration.
  
  
• Poll watchers are not typically government employees. They’re generally appointed by political parties to observe the opening of the polls and ballot counting. They may be party or candidate representatives, members of nonpartisan groups, academics, or part of special interest groups with stakes in local ballot measures.

How many poll workers usually help in general elections?

Looking at polling sites with available data, roughly 644,000 poll workers assisted with in-person and/or early voting in the 2022 general election. This includes data from 45 states and the District of Columbia collected by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission’s Election Administration and Voting Survey (EAVS), a study conducted every two years to examine how states administer federal elections.

Data was unavailable for New Hampshire, Vermont and Wisconsin, as well as for the country’s two fully vote-by-mail states: Oregon and Washington. (Hawaii, which is included in these figures, primarily conducts voting by mail but still has in-person voting at staffed polling sites.)

By comparison, about 774,000 poll workers helped in the 2020 general election, according to EAVS data from polling sites that provided this information in 44 states and D.C. (This total excludes data from the same states as in the 2022 survey, as well as Pennsylvania.)

Related: Republicans, Democrats continue to differ sharply on voting access

Which states have the most poll workers per polling site?

D.C. topped the list with 23 poll workers per site in the 2022 general election. Colorado (15 per polling place), Nevada (14), New York, Maryland and Minnesota (12 each) rounded out the top six.

In 2022, 28 of the 45 states and D.C. with available data had fewer than eight poll workers per site. (This total includes Iowa, but some jurisdictions there did not report the number of poll workers they had that year.)

Are poll workers paid?

The amount of compensation poll workers can receive varies widely by state and county. Minimum requirements are typically set on the state level – with some using the federal or state minimum wage as a basis – but local jurisdictions sometimes opt to pay their workers more.

While election clerks in Delaware are entitled to a $300 stipend, for example, many poll workers in Alaska are eligible to make $20 an hour. Colorado law requires election judges to be paid at least $5 per day.

Poll workers can also often be reimbursed for travel expenses or paid for completing trainings.

Several states, including New Jersey, Oklahoma and Alabama, have raised their minimum compensation requirements for poll workers in the past few years to incentivize more recruits. Most recently, South Carolina’s Election Commission requested a budget increase to fund a $40 daily raise for the Palmetto State’s poll workers.

What criteria must poll workers meet?

Across D.C. and the 48 states that have in-person voting, requirements vary widely – even for poll workers serving different roles in the same precinct. But some similarities emerge:

• All states have minimum age requirements, most often set at 18, but many allow students as young as 16 to serve under certain limitations.
  
  
• Forty-one states, plus D.C., explicitly require volunteers to be registered voters. In Minnesota, North Dakota and Wisconsin, they must at least be eligible to vote.
  
  
• Every state but Hawaii – where voting primarily takes place by mail – has explicit residency requirements. States often mandate that poll workers reside in the county or precinct of the polling place, but many allow some flexibility for outsiders if there are volunteer shortages.
  
  
• Poll workers are explicitly required to have a party affiliation in at least nine states. In about half of the 48 states that offer in-person voting, it’s “considered,” “preferred” or “generally” required unless there aren’t enough volunteers who affiliate with a major party. Some states – such as New York – require poll workers or election officials to equally represent the two major political parties, depending on the worker’s position.
  
  
• The vast majority of states require poll workers to undergo trainings, which are commonly held at the local level.
  
  
• At least 37 states, plus D.C., require at least some poll workers in certain positions to swear an oath.

Elected officials, candidates and their families, political action committee members, and people with felony records are typically barred from serving as poll workers. People who’ve bet on elections or committed certain crimes are also sometimes prohibited.

Some states set additional “good reputation” requirements. For example, poll workers in Georgia must be “be judicious, intelligent, and upright citizens” while those in New Jersey must be “of good repute and character.” Virginia simply requires that they are “competent citizens.”

Jump to our table showing each state’s requirements for poll workers.

What are common recruitment challenges?

While Nebraska law allows counties to draft people – jury duty-style – to meet staffing needs, most U.S. poll workers are volunteers. With more than 94,000 polling sites to staff nationwide, recruiting enough people can be a challenge.

Specific hurdles, such as a lack of public awareness about the job or disinterest in the long hours and relatively low pay, have been widely cited by news outlets and research organizations. Public health was also a worrisome issue for poll workers – the majority of whom are older than 60 – during the 2020 election, which coincided with the coronavirus pandemic.

Personal safety concerns among poll workers also intensified that year and continue to linger. The Department of Justice recently warned that harassment against poll workers may persist – and potentially worsen with the use of AI – in the 2024 election. Many states have responded to these concerns, with 18 enacting legal protections for election officials and poll workers since 2020, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. 

Creative recruitment methods have subsequently cropped up in several states, such as enlisting military veterans for the job in the hopes of increasing public trust in poll workers. Election officials in places that allow younger workers have also recently pushed to mobilize college and high school students to volunteer at polling sites for the 2024 election.

Majority of states require poll workers to be registered voters, local residents

State law on poll worker requirements

State	Must be registered voter	Residency requirement	Party affiliation explicitly required
Alabama	Yes	County, but precinct is sometimes prioritized	Generally
Alaska	Yes	Precinct; if insufficient staffing, can recruit district residents, then state residents	Generally
Arizona	Yes	Precinct, then county or other precincts	Required for some positions
Arkansas	Yes	Precinct, then county	Generally
California	Yes	State
Colorado	Yes	State	Generally
Connecticut	Yes	Generally town or district	Generally
Delaware		State
District of Columbia	Yes	D.C. resident (except D.C. govt. employees)
Florida	Yes	County
Georgia		Generally county for county residents or employees
Hawaii
Idaho		No legal requirement, but precinct is the norm	Preferred
Illinois	Yes	Generally precinct, but county for some positions	Required
Indiana	Yes	County
Iowa	Yes	Precinct preferred, then county	Generally
Kansas	Yes	Area of polling place or county	Required
Kentucky	Yes	Precinct, then county	Generally
Louisiana	Yes	Any precinct in ward; if insufficient staffing, can recruit residents from parish	Required
Maine	Yes	Municipality or county	Required for clerks
Maryland	Yes	County, then state	Preferred
Massachusetts	Yes	Commonwealth	Preferred, but a limited number of nonaffiliated workers are allowed
Michigan	Yes	State	Required
Minnesota	*	Precinct is the informal norm, but state is the requirement	Required
Mississippi	Yes	County	Certain positions may only be filled by members of one political party if recruits with other party affiliations cannot be found
Missouri	Yes	Jurisdiction, unless insufficient number found	Generally preferred; Missouri election judges are required to provide their party affiliation.
Montana	Yes	Precinct, then county	Required
Nebraska	Yes	County residency required for places with election commissioners; for places without election commissioners, precinct residency is preferred, but county is allowed	Generally
Nevada	Yes	County	Required
New Hampshire	Yes	Voting district (polling place)	Required for some positions
New Jersey	Yes	County	Generally
New Mexico	Yes	Precinct, then county	Considered for election judges
New York	Yes	County (or city for NYC residents)	Poll workers must be equally divided between the major political parties
North Carolina	Yes	Generally precinct
North Dakota	*	Precinct, then legislative district, then county	Required for some positions
Ohio	Yes	County	No more than half of poll workers should be from the same political party
Oklahoma	Yes	County	Required
Pennsylvania	Yes	Election district
Rhode Island	Yes	City, town, senatorial or representative district, or voting district	Considered
South Carolina	Yes	County or adjoining county
South Dakota	Yes	Generally precinct	Required
Tennessee	Yes	State house legislative district or county	Preferred
Texas	Yes*	Generally precinct or county	Generally
Utah	Yes	County, municipality or district	Generally for election judges
Vermont	Yes	Municipality	Considered
Virginia	Yes*	Precinct, then commonwealth	Generally
West Virginia	Yes	Generally county or municipality	Generally
Wisconsin	*	County	Generally
Wyoming	Yes	County	Generally

Note: Here are the questions used in the analysis, along with its methodology.