Portable Poll Workers: Eliminating Precinct Requirements in U.S. Elections

Abstract

Given that poll workers play an important role in the voting process by disseminating ballots, checking signatures, and answering voter queries, having a sufficient quantity of poll workers is imperative to democratic elections. I argue that portable poll worker registration—permitting registered voters to work statewide in any election precinct—increases the ease of election administrators filling poll worker positions. I use the 2008–2018 Election Administration and Voting Survey to test the hypothesis. In presidential and midterm elections, local election officials who have access to a statewide portability of registered voters are more likely to report a very easy time and less likely to report a very difficult time finding poll workers compared to states without statewide portability. The results suggest election administrators would benefit from states changing registration requirements to allow citizens to work in any precinct.