The Quick Start Management Guide for 

Poll Workers is a snapshot of processes and 

procedures for local election administrators 

to use for recruiting, training, and retaining 

poll workers. It is a guide that assists 

election officials with one of their most 

challenging tasks—managing the people 

resources required to conduct an election. 

A comprehensive Guidebook for Poll 

Workers is under development and will be 

released in 2007.


Quick Start Management Guide for Poll Workers

Reaching Out to Potential Poll 

Workers

•	 Advertise the need for poll workers by

posting a sign-up sheet at polling places

and early voting locations.

•	 Use your office Web site by posting an

online, interactive poll worker job application and job description. Partner with

area businesses/corporations, city/county

governments, chambers of commerce, etc.,

to post a link to your online recruitment

application on their Web site.

•	 Use technology by developing an e-mail

blast to reach employees at city/county

government and area businesses/

corporations.

•	 Use existing staff and poll workers as an

army of recruiters. Ask them to talk to

friends and relatives to encourage them to

become poll workers.

•	 Create an informational brochure to

distribute at speaking engagements, make

available at front counters, insert in

mailings, etc.

•	 Advertise your need in area neighborhood

association newsletters, city/chamber/

school district newsletters, church

publications, multilingual media

publications, etc. Incorporate your need for

poll workers with other election advertising

needs. Example: Partner with your area cable 

public access channel to run public service 

announcements focusing on opportunities for 

poll workers.
Quick Start Management Guide for Poll Workers

•	 Design and print recruitment posters.

Display them at area grocery stores,

in libraries, at movie theaters, at mass

transportation systems, etc.

•	 Reach out to the media with the specifics

for the neighborhoods where you need poll

workers—how many, etc.

•	 Develop community recruiting partnerships:

•	 City/County Government Employees—

Work with local government

management and elected officials to

develop a program that encourages

department heads to reassign some of

their employees to the Election Office

on Election Day.

•	 High School Students—Establish a

recruitment effort by contacting your

local high school principals. If State

law permits, assign at least one student

to each polling place.

•	 College Students—Contact college

faculty at area universities and

community colleges to develop a

college poll worker program. College

students could also be assigned to

assist with pre-election operational

needs and may also be available to

assist as troubleshooters/rovers on

Election Day.

•	 Civic Organizations—Reach out

to local civic groups and other

membership organizations to recruit

their membership to work at the

polls. Promote this program by

suggesting that members use working


Quick Start Management Guide for Poll Workers

at the polls as a “fundraiser” with

participating members voluntarily

donating their stipends/earnings back

to their organization or to the civic

organization of their choice.

•	 Corporations and Businesses—Reach

out to companies and businesses to

incorporate poll worker service as part

of their ongoing community service

program that encourages employees to

serve as poll workers on Election Day.

Promote this program by suggesting

they use working at the polls as

a “fundraiser” with participating

employees voluntarily donating their

stipends/earnings back to the civic

organization of their choice.

Reviewing Your Training Program

•	 Review performance and feedback from

past elections to determine if poll workers

need better training in certain areas of

the operation. Use this information to

establish priorities for reviewing/updating

training techniques.

•	 Evaluate your Election Day polling place

supplies. Are they all necessary, or have

changes in procedures or voting systems

made some of them obsolete? Are they easy

to find on Election Day, or is there a better

way to pack them? Example: Consider asking 

a group of poll workers to meet and critique 

supplies and forms.

•	 Review the training manual. Does it

need to be revised to reflect changes in
Quick Start Management Guide for Poll Workers

procedures or new equipment? Is the

information clearly presented? Ask a team

of new poll workers to read the manual and

provide feedback.

•	 Consider conducting separate training for

experienced and new poll workers and/or

specific poll worker positions.

•	 Determine what materials poll workers will

take home from training. Example: manual, 

training video/CD, quizzes, scenarios.

•	 Determine what equipment and

supplies you need for training. If you are

implementing new voting equipment,

you will need a large number of voting

machines that can be used for practice

(in “demonstration mode”) in training. If

you are changing forms or the format of

materials, such as the provisional ballot

application, the voter list, or the precinct

map, make sure to have the revised version

available for training.

Updating Your Training Techniques

•	 Don’t re-invent the wheel. Visit other jurisdictions and attend their training sessions.

Invite other jurisdictions, the League of

Women Voters, or adult education experts

to come to your training event to provide

feedback. Share ideas with other jurisdictions that use the same election technology.

•	 Use trainers who know the subject and

are experienced in training techniques, or

develop a program to “train the trainer.”

Training and teaching are different


Quick Start Management Guide for Poll Workers

educational approaches. Example: A 

schoolteacher may not know training techniques.

•	 Use visual aids throughout your training

program. Create poster-sized signs to

reinforce the most critical information

made in training. Post copies of these signs

around the training room. Example: One 

poster might remind poll workers to take out the 

memory cartridges from each voting machine 

at the end of election night. Another poster 

could remind them to make sure provisional 

voters sign the provisional ballot application. A 

third poster might remind them where to find 

troubleshooting information.

•	 Remember to mirror Election Day

throughout your training. That is, what the

poll worker sees in training—the opening

checklist, the list of voters, the paperwork,

the job guides—should be exactly what the

poll worker will see on Election Day.

•	 Develop job guides for all poll worker positions. These tools will remind poll workers

how to perform a specific role or task at

the polling place. Keep the guides short

and simple—no more than one page—and

easy to read. Use the job guides in training so poll workers know to look for them

on Election Day and understand all the

information. Example: Create separate job 

guides for the poll worker who checks the list 

of voters, for the poll worker who assists voters 

whose names are not on the list or whose names 

are lost, for the poll worker who gives the voter a 

ballot, and for the poll worker who assists voters 

with filling out their ballot or voting on the machine.


Quick Start Management Guide for Poll Workers

•	 Invite poll workers to provide feedback on

the poll worker training program. Develop

specific questions. Example: “Did you feel 

confident in your ability to open the polls after 

training?” or “Did you encounter anything on 

Election Day that was not covered in training?” 

and, of course, “What can we do better?”

•	 Incorporate real-life Election Day

scenarios with your training program.

Ask the participants to visualize and/or

roleplay by responding with a solution for

each scenario. Roleplaying provides an

opportunity for the participants to “see”

themselves in action on Election Day.

Example: Ask the poll workers to determine 

how to process a registered voter who has moved 

to an address in a different precinct.

•	 Develop a refresher list of “20 Questions.”

End the training session program by using

the 20 Questions in an interactive Q&A

session.

Ensuring Success on Election Day

•	 Provide a dedicated phone line for poll

worker support on Election Day. Election

staff should receive specialized training on

how to respond to poll workers’ questions;

for example, how to process a voter or how

to open/close a voting machine. Train

election staff to document each call and,

if necessary, route a support technician to

provide quick response to resolve a request

for assistance.


Quick Start Management Guide for Poll Workers

•	 Make sure poll workers have immediate

access to a dedicated telephone to place

and receive support and emergency calls in

their polling place on Election Day.

•	 Keep it simple. Provide easy-to-follow

checklists for opening/closing the polls

and flowcharts depicting how to process

the various categories of voters (for

example, provisional voters). To make it

easy for the poll workers to remember

important procedures, provide laminated

instructional reminders in strategic

locations within the supplies.

•	 Make sure poll workers have an easily

accessible troubleshooting guide on

Election Day.

•	 Establish an Election Day support

program. Assign troubleshooters/rovers

to visit polling places throughout the

day to ensure the polling places are set

up and open for business and that poll

workers are processing the voters correctly.

Troubleshooters/rovers can be trained

election staff or members of service/voter

education organizations. Alternatively,

they can be government employees with

technical expertise as field technicians

who can be recruited from county and

city information technology departments.

Example: Develop a checklist to ensure 

consistency at polling places throughout the 

county. As part of your Election Day audit, 

have the troubleshooter/rover and judge sign 

the checklist and poll worker performance 

evaluation records.
Quick Start Management Guide for Poll Workers


Quick Start Management Guide for Poll Workers