Poll Worker Recruitment Day supports the Election Assistance Commission’s (EAC) Help America Vote campaign to recruit poll workers for the midterm election in November.
Today, Power the Polls – the first-of-its-kind, nonpartisan initiative for recruiting the next generation of poll workers – is supporting the Election Assistance Commission’s Help America Vote campaign through its own day of action, Poll Worker Recruitment Day. With the midterm elections fast approaching, the need to recruit and engage poll workers is increasingly urgent and essential to our democracy to ensure free and fair elections for all.
This year on Poll Worker Recruitment Day, Power the Polls is helping elections officials around the country by activating business, media, nonprofit partners, and influencers in a concerted push to recruit poll workers, including raising awareness and providing resources to increase applications in time for the midterms. In addition to amplifying the day of action through social media channels, many partners are putting on unique events or developing custom communications for their audiences:
- All On The Line is hosting an event to celebrate Poll Worker Recruitment Day and discuss how poll workers help ensure a safe, fair, efficient election for all voters.
- Salesforce is renewing its call for employees to engage in all nonpartisan aspects of the democratic process. On August 16, the company will issue internal and public communications to remind its employees of available civic engagement opportunities, including volunteering at the polls.
- Comedy Central’s The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, which helped recruit thousands of potential poll workers in 2020, is spotlighting the effort on its August 15 and 16 shows.
- Human Rights Campaign AZ and All Voting Is Local AZ are hosting an event on Poll Worker Recruitment Day to discuss opportunities to become a poll worker on Election Day.
- The Youth Leadership Initiative, a program of the University of Virginia Center for Politics, has created a lesson plan on the role of election administration for Poll Worker Recruitment Day. This lesson plan, which will be shared today with civics teachers across the country, can be paired with nonpartisan experiential learning opportunities for students to serve as poll workers or pages in their local office of elections.
“Every day, we hear from election administrators who are sounding the alarm about poll worker shortages in states across the country – we urgently need more people, especially younger people, to sign up to be a poll worker,” said Jane Slusser, Program Manager at Power the Polls. “This Poll Worker Recruitment Day, we’re working to ensure that anyone who wants to cast their ballot in this year’s election is able. In 2020, despite the pandemic, we were blown away by the hundreds of thousands of individuals who stepped up for their local communities and signed up to be poll workers – and we’re looking forward to seeing the same energy again this year.”
Across the country, election administrators are already reporting poll worker shortages. These shortages threaten access to the ballot box by leading to polling location closures and long lines, especially in communities of color and low income communities. In 2020, Power the Polls and its founding partners – Civic Alliance, Civic Responsibility Project, Comedy Central, Fair Elections Center, Pizza to the Polls, MTV Entertainment Group, and Center for Secure & Modern Elections – met its initial goal of recruiting 250,000 potential poll workers during Poll Worker Recruitment Day alone, contributing to the more than 700,000 potential poll workers signed up by the effort over the course of the election cycle.
“Poll workers are critical to help maintain safe in-person voting for communities without reliable access to mail service, voters with disabilities, those who need language assistance, or for voters who simply want to cast their ballot in person as they always have. The deadline and requirements to apply to be a poll worker varies by state, which is why it’s so important to promote and recruit for these critical positions early,” notes Ashley Spillane of Civic Responsibility Project. “Power the Polls is starting even earlier this year than it was able to in 2020. Civic Responsibility Project is thrilled to have helped Power the Polls be in this strong position to support all American voters this November.”
To sign up to be a poll worker during the midterm election this year please visit www.powerthepolls.org/signup.
About Power the Polls
Power the Polls is a first-of-its-kind, nonpartisan initiative for recruiting poll workers to ensure a safe and fair election for all. Power the Polls was launched in June 2020 by a coalition of businesses and nonprofits, including Civic Alliance, Civic Responsibility Project, Comedy Central, Fair Elections Center, Pizza to the Polls, MTV Entertainment Group, and Center for Secure & Modern Elections. Power the Polls relies on objective data about poll worker requirements and applications collected from over 5,000 jurisdictions assembled by the non-partisan Fair Elections Center.