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Every time I went to vote in an election, I wondered about the people working at the polling station. I recognized many from my community but didn't know how they got that job so I did a bit a research. For many parts of this country, this role is known as a poll worker. This role in my county is called an election judge, and how you become one varies not just from state to state but by county. I decided to apply to be an election judge or official; now that I am self-employed, I can choose to "take off" Election Day and help at the polls.
I am updating this post in 2024, as I have now served as an election judge in Maryland for several general and primary elections and have also served as a judge for early voting. It's important to know what goes on behind the scenes to ensure you can vote in a secure and fair manner.
My Experience as an Election Judge
I live in Prince George's County, Maryland. In this county, you apply online, and if they have an opening, they will contact you. You take a four-hour training and are required to work at the polling station for a couple of hours the night before Election Day and at least 14 hours on the actual day. You also agree to work for any general and primary election that happens in the year.
This four-hour training is repeated before every election. This means I have already taken this training about five times. The training slightly changes each time with updates to the process or the laws. We receive a handbook (it's a half-inch thick) to use as a reference when working at the polls on election day.
The Role of an Election Judge in Maryland
I live in a state with many laws to make voting accessible. However, this isn't true for all of the country, so if you live elsewhere, your experience and responsibilities as a judge may vary.
The Night Before Election Day
The night before Election Day, we meet at the polling place around 6pm. Around bottles of water and a tray of cookies, we get to know one another and receive our Election Day assignments. There are around 14 of us at my polling location, two who are Chief Judges (the senior members of the group who manage us, one who is a Republican, and one who is a Democrat). After receiving assignments, we set up the room for election day.
We receive several large metal rolling carts from headquarters that have multiple locks on them. Inside are the tables and privacy screen for polling tables, the electronic ballot marking devices (BMD) for accessible voting, two scanning machines, the tablets to check in voters, and all the materials for voting (paper and BMD ballots, provisional voting materials, folders, etc.). There are many checks and balances, tamper-resistant tape with numbers to record, locks, and forms to ensure everything is counted and protected. This setup takes about two hours.
On Election Day
We return to our polling place at 5:30 am. We're not allowed to leave the building while voting is taking place, so we all bring our meals, drinks, and creature comforts. I have now worked at multiple polling places and see that some set up a potluck for lunch, some bring coffee makers from home for all to enjoy, and sometimes a local group or the community firefighters or police order pizza or subs for us to enjoy. We've even had neighbors bring us treats in thanks (please know we are not to accept homemade treats).
We run reports to show there are 0 votes in our machines and tape them to the front door. We put out signage to notify folks this is a polling place and ensure campaigning is kept at the proper distance from the building.
Four individuals are assigned for check-in, two on the floor to manage lines, two at the station to get your ballot and to assist those who need the accessible voting machine, two who are scanning ballots, two managing provisional voters and anyone having an exception with their ballot, and the two Chief Judges who oversee the room, check in on us at our stations, deal with any issues, and when needed get on the floor to control crowds or allow judges to take breaks.
Working as a Provisional Judge in Maryland
In Prince George's County you do not choose what kind of election judge you are. I was assigned as a Provisional Judge when I signed up years ago. While I have now worked every roll as an election judge (except chief), I am still assigned as a Provisional Judge.
The Provisional Judge handles anyone who would vote provisionally. There are many reasons why one may have to vote provisionally, some of the most common:
- They aren't in their voting precinct (say they live in Prince George's County but are voting in Baltimore because that's where they work)
- They recently moved
- They wish to change their political party (this happens more in the primary elections)
- They ordered a mail-in ballot and didn't use it or lost it
There are around a dozen different reasons... it doesn't matter, your vote will be counted and you receive the same ballot as any other voter. Your ballot will just be hand counted to ensure it is valid. This also ensures that no voter can vote twice, no one can vote for a deceased individual... it essentially prevents any sort of voter fraud. While it may take up to two weeks to count all provisional ballots, they will be counted, especially in a close race.
If anyone accidentally filled out their ballot wrong, accidentally tore it, or for some reason, the scanner couldn't read a page of their ballot, that voter comes to me as I am also the Exceptions judge. I provide a replacement ballot and "spoil" their original, record it being spoiled, and file it. There are many checks and balances to ensure there are no missing ballots and that every single completed ballot is accounted for.
On Election Day
Election judges are not to wear any political or issue-related attire or accessories. We are also to not wear any colors associated with a political party (no red, no blue, no green). We are to be in business casual attire, and comfortable shoes are recommended as it's a long day on a hard floor of a school gym or community center.
Doors open at 7 a.m., and there is usually already a long line of voters. We rarely have a moment without someone in line to vote, though 3 p.m. is usually the slowest point of the day. We often switch roles to allow folks to take breaks and meals, choosing those cross-trained and senior to be the replacements.
We either close the doors at 8:00 pm or note the last individual in line. Anyone who has shown up before 8 pm can vote, even if there's a line around the building. We will ensure every voter who arrives on time has the ability and plenty of time to vote.
After Voting Hours
After the doors closed, we still had a lot of work to do. We tally everything up, check it against other reports, and make sure everything is counted and matched up. We complete another report to tape on the door to show how many voters we had, and how many for different questions and candidates.
We pack up the booths, the machines, the signage back into those large rolling cabinets. A Closing Judge takes all the machinery with the poll results to headquarters where it is again counted, checked, and ensure everything is accounted for.
What I Learned as an Election Judge
The experience as an election judge was eye-opening. For years, I have stood in line, maybe quietly grumbling when it has taken a long time to vote, get my sticker, and head out. I never really noticed the staff or those around me voting, nor did I stop to think about how everything got set up in that room, which is usually a gymnasium, or how the votes got from the gym to the results on the TV screen.
When you check in to vote in my county, we use a machine that connects to Maryland voting information. We don't ask for ID, but we do ask you to spell your name and confirm your address. We may ask for additional information to confirm we're selecting the right person from the system, and there are processes to ensure people don't vote twice or cause voter fraud.
In Maryland, if you applied for an absentee or mail-in ballot but didn't use it, you can still vote on Election Day at the polls. If you show up at the wrong polling station, you can still vote. If your address changed recently, you can still vote. Provisional votes do count, but they aren't counted on Election Night. They are tallied later and can help with tiebreakers. This sounds sketchy, but at my polling place, there were only a couple dozen provisional votes. The system is set up so that provisional votes should be minimal.
Maryland returned to paper ballots over a decade ago, not because they are cheaper or because the County was in the Stone Age, but because they are more accurate and tamper-resistant. If you are unable to fill out a paper ballot, each polling station has at least one touch-screen polling machine available. This is a ballot-marking device; you will not be voting electronically, but instead, a machine will mark a ballot on your behalf that will be scanned with the paper ballots.
If you are blind, deaf, unable to walk, unable to write, or in any other situation, you can still vote. Let us know when you check in, and we will make any and every accommodation to give you the right to vote. You can bring an assistant to help you vote; that individual will have to fill out a short form, but we welcome them.
Being an Election Judge isn't easy. It's an extremely long day, and it's emotionally taxing to assist so many different people. You can't even step outside for a quick walk or breath of fresh air, and you're suddenly BFFs with 13 people you hardly know for almost 24 hours straight. I now understand why, when I went to vote, the majority of the election judges looked bored, angry, or exhausted. I will be even kinder to them in the future!
Mean People Vote
You can often read a voter as soon as she or he enters the polling place. There were many who walked in, expecting the experience to be awful. They were tapping their foot and pointedly looking at their watch, loudly huffing while crossing their arms, purposefully speaking loudly to another in line about how slow and archaic the process was. We'd thank people for voting as they left and, half the time, receive a snarky response. At least a dozen times, I heard someone end their sentence to a judge with, "No thanks to you."
A fellow judge was called a misogynist for asking a woman to put away her cell phone (you cannot use your cell phone, can't even check a text while in a polling place). He asked a man just before her; he was asking everyone to put away their phones as he was instructed to do, and this woman yelled at him and asked to speak to the Chief Judge about his supposed sexism.
A man in a MAGA hat got up in my face and yelled that he needed an ID to buy a beer, an ID to buy a gun, an ID to use the community pool, but no ID needed to vote, and I was destroying America, and he'd have my job.
One judge asked another a question to confirm he was doing a process correctly, a voter yelled at him, called him boy and asked if the other judge wiped his ass for him too.
I had a lot of people yell at me because they were marked as provisional voters, and they felt that was wrong. I explained that we had no control over that, would give them the number to the Board of Elections, and told them that their provisional vote would still be counted, but they'd continue to call us names and tell us how corrupt the system was. A couple refused their right to vote because they were marked as provisional and stormed out.
The voting process in Maryland is not perfect, but it's so much better than many other states and definitely better than many other countries. We are so lucky to have the right to vote, and where I live, we are so lucky to have it accessible. Where I live, I can easily walk to three polling locations. I know that in parts of this country, people have to drive hours to vote, and it floored me how rude and entitled many individuals were. But just like when I worked retail decades ago, I kept smiling and focused on those who needed and wanted help.
It's easy to get down about mean people, but the great ones were the majority. In general, people were happy. I saw many people tear up when submitting their ballot, so many people in fantastic t-shirts representing organizations they support, and multiple generations coming to vote together.
The Uninformed Voter
I heard two people discussing how a candidate ended the Rain Tax, and both of them didn't understand what a Rain Tax was. The two of them, strangers before that day, both thought the government was taxing residents based on the amount of rainfall in a given year. They chose to vote for that candidate because they believed he reduced their personal taxes by eliminating the Rain Tax.
I heard people say they didn't vote for someone because they thought the candidate looked like a pedophile, because they couldn't tell what race they were, because they didn't like the look of the candidate's spouse, because the candidate wore an ugly suit to a debate, because their neighbor is voting for that candidate and he can never agree with his neighbor so the candidate must suck.
One year when Maryland was voting for its new governor, many voters didn't know the political party of the current governor who was running for reelection. Even more didn't know the name of the person running against the governor.
As an election judge, I am not allowed to educate or even discuss the election and candidates, but sitting at that table, people forgot I was there, and I heard a lot of inaccurate and downright ridiculous information about the government, candidates, and the voting process.
Do Election Judges Get Paid?
Election judges are paid in my state. In PG County, we receive $50 for attending the training and $300 per election as long as we attend all three (training, the night before the meeting, and Election Day). Night judges who take the machinery back to headquarters receive an additional $100. Chief judges make around $100 more. For early voting judges, we make more but we also work at least four days.
During the day, we had voters encouraging the crowd to applaud us for volunteering or thanking us for volunteering. It was sweet but not quite accurate. It's a very popular activity for the retired and underemployed because it provides a necessary bit of money along with social interaction and a sense of community.
Some people got so mad that they couldn't vote quickly (it never took more than an hour, even during peak times) that they stormed out before actually voting. The polls are open from 7 am to 8 pm and there was a long period prior for early voting. Voting is so important that it's worth planning according to your schedule.
If you arrive between 8-9 am, it will be a much longer line than if you arrive right at 7 am, or 3 pm, or even an hour before closing. In the future, consider early voting, which may offer a location closer to your place of work, will have shorter lines, and is even open on weekends.
This experience as an election judge made me realize it's not overkill to share information about voting. I saw many complain that there were too many ads on registering to vote or basic information about voting. However, on Election Day, I saw highly educated individuals not knowing the basics, and many people shared that their neighbors didn't vote because they didn't know how to register. If you have knowledge, share it. The worst you'll get is an eye roll, the best is you'll inspire another American to have his or her voice heard in the next election.
Voting Resources
Voting is a privilege. Many before us fought and died for our right to vote. It doesn't happen often, and we're notified well in advance before the day arrives, so there's time to prepare. Below are some resources to help you be informed and prepare for Election Day:
If you would like to help out for the next election, Google "how to be an election judge" and enter your state. The role has different names depending on where you live; some states call them officers or poll workers.
This post was originally published in 2018.