Election Day rests on the backs of poll workers. But what goes into the making of a poll worker?
Pew Research Center recently published a rundown of who poll workers are, what they do, and their demographics across the country. Supporters of Vice President Kamala Harris are more likely than supporters of former president Donald Trump (62% vs 36%) to say they are very confident in poll workers. However, while the country may be divided, 90% of voters over all say they have confidence in poll workers, while only 81% are confident in state officials to run the election.
Here are a few other key insights from the Pew report:
- What do poll workers do? Poll workers are temporary workers who work on the ground on Election Day. They set up equipment such as voting machines, greet voters and explain the process, check in voters and ensure they have valid IDs, ensure ballots are fed into the voting machine properly, and count ballots. They differ from election observers who are appointed by third parties to watch ballot counting and make sure nothing untoward happens.
- How many poll workers are there? There were about 774,000 poll workers in the 2020 election, according to Pew. Most sites average eight, but the range is two to 23 working each location. Washington, D.C., had the highest number of poll workers per site. Alaska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Iowa, Mississippi, Alabama, and New Jersey had some of the lowest averages, ranging from two to four per site.
- How much do poll workers earn? It depends. According to Pew, each state sets a minimum using state or federal minimum wages as a guideline. Delaware offers a $300 stipend; Alaska pays $20 an hour.
- What are the requirements to be a poll worker? These also vary from state to state. Most have a minimum age of 18, a few have 16. A total of 41 states require workers to be registered voters, and at least nine states require poll workers to be affiliated with a party. Every state except Hawaii has residency requirements—that the workers must live in the county.