With the election just two weeks away, election officials around the state are finalizing their workforces to make sure they have enough people to keep things running.
Poll workers – sometimes called election judges are the people who keep elections running smoothly.
Despite how essential they are for the democratic process, it can be hard to find people willing to take the job.
Kathy Holestine Campbell, the executive director of the Missouri Association of County Clerks & Election Authorities, said there are many reasons for this, but a main one is how long a day it is.
“It is not unusual for an election judge to head to the poll 4:30 from their home and not arrive back home until maybe 10:00 at night,” Holestine Campbell said.
Scott Joffe, who helps train election judges in Boone County, said that he’s seen people get up and walk out when their instructional video mentions how long the day is.
It’s not just people daunted by working a 12-plus hour day, the logistical challenge is also significant.
If prospective election judges mhave kids, can’t get time off from work or have a disability, it’s harder for them to serve.
Boone County Clerk Brianna Lennon said asking people who already have jobs is also a hard sell.
“Do you want to take the off and go report to a polling place at 4:30 in the morning and work here for 15 hours? Probably not you’re already working pretty hard at your job anyway,” Lennon said.
As a result, most poll workers have historically been retirees. Holestine Campbell estimates the average poll worker in Missouri is at least 70 years old.
But with more technology being added to elections, there may be a higher bar for these normally reliable public servants. For instance, instead of signing a physical poll book to receive a ballot, Missouri voters now more often use an iPad.
Jay Ashcroft, Missouri’s departing Secretary of State, said he’s worried about 10 years from now.
“Maybe I’m just a curmudgeon, but I worry with how younger people are communicating today maybe we are becoming less social,” Ashcroft said.
Another wrinkle is the requirement to have bipartisan verification throughout the process. This includes requiring the signatures of poll workers from two different parties on every ballot.
Missouri’s political demographics mean rural areas can struggle to find Democratic poll workers and urban areas may lack Republicans.
A regulation change in 2022 helped this problem, making it easier for poll workers to go outside of their county to work. This has led Holestine Campbell to joke with Lennon about setting up a voter exchange program between different colored counties.
“I tease Brianna that I want to start a poll worker exchange program that includes a bus that she loads up the people that she has that are extra, and we send those out,” Holestine Campbell said.
Sounds simple on paper, but the logistics it would take to set the trade up keep it just a joke at least for now.
So election officials most common recruitment tool is pushing the pavement – looking for people who believe in the process.
Trynton Roberts is a trainer who’s been working polls for 6 years. He said what keeps him coming back is exactly that.
“I enjoy helping people participate in our democracy,” Roberts said.
This system has kept elections working for the many years its been in place, but there are some concerns about its future.
So while there’s no one-size-fits-all solution to staffing the polls, there is one constant: elections run on the back of people who can find the time to make democracy work.
