Key facts about U.S. poll workers

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?

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, for example – 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 also 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.”

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.

Note: This is an update of an analysis originally published on July 25, 2024. The update includes new survey data about public perceptions of poll workers. All other information is unchanged. Here are the questions used for this analysis, the topline and the survey methodology.